f:54:^"'>\'S-'  ^^ 


AND     Other    Sermons 


3,  S-g-.oSr. 


from  t^e  fetfirarg  of 

(pxoftBBOx  nXHmam  (BXifPer  (]f)d;rton,  ©.©.,  &fe.®. 

♦         ^eeenfe^  61?  (Utte.  $a;rfon 

to  f 3e  feiBrarj?  of 

(Princeton  C^eofogicaf  ^eminarg 

3c©6 


jH^; 


GIVEN    TO    CHRIST 


OTHER    SERMONS. 


JOHN     W.     PRATT,     D.  D. 


WITH   A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH   OF   HIS   LIFE   AND   LABORS. 


NEW  YORK: 
ANSON    D.    F.    RANDOLPH    &    COMPANY, 

38  WEST   TWENTY-THIRD  STREET. 


COPYRIGHT,   1889,   BY 
M.    W.    PRATT. 


EDWARD   O.   JENKINS'    SONS, 

Printers  and  Electrotypera, 

so  NORTH  WILLIAM  ST.,   NEW  VORK. 


PREFACE. 


If  the  writer  of  these  sermons  had  published  thein 
himself,  doubtless  they  would  have  had  many  imper- 
fections removed ;  but  as  that  could  not  be,  in  compli- 
ance with  numerous  requests,  I  give  them  just  as  they 
were  prepared  for  the  various  congregations  to  which 
he  preached ;  with  the  daily  prayer  that  God  will  use 
them,  and  feeling  assured  that  could  his  voice  7iow  be 
heard,  his  language  would  be  that  of  Dr.  Bonar: 

"Not  myself,  but  the  truth  that  in  life  I  have  spoken, 
Not  myself,  but  the  seeds  that  in  life  I  have  sown, 
Shall  pass  on  to  ages,  all  about  me  forgotten 
Save  the  truth  I  have  spoken,  the  things  I  have  done." 

M.  W.  Pratt. 
Louisville,  Ky.,  1888. 


(3) 


BIOGEAPHICAL    SKETCH. 

BY  C.  A.  STILLMAN,  D.D. 


The  Eev.  John  Wood  Pkatt,  D.D.,  was  born  at  St.  Mary's, 
Georgia,  on  the  12th  of  May,  1827.  He  sprang  from  an  honored 
ancestry  ;  on  his  father's  side  from  the  grand  old  Puritan  stock 
recognized  as  the  chief  glory  of  Old  and  Kew  England,  and  on 
his  mother's  from  the  English  gentry,  that  class  which  has  been 
called  more  noble  than  "  The  Nobles." 

His  father,  the  Kev.  Horace  S.  Pratt,  was  a  Presbyterian  min- 
ister and  Professor  of  English  Literature  in  the  University  of 
Alabama  at  the  time  of  his  death  in  1840.  His  mother,  Jane 
Wood,  died  when  he  was  only  one  year  old,  so  that  his  maternal 
training  devolved  upon  his  second  mother— a  most  intelligent, 
godly,  and  in  every  way  estimable  woman.  His  early  youth  gave 
indications  of  the  ability  which  marked  his  after-life.  When 
only  seventeen  he  graduated  with  distinguished  honor  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Alabama.  While  a  mere  boy  he  consecrated  himself 
to  the  service  of  Christ,  and  very  soon  resolved  to  prepare  hunself 
for  that  profession  in  which  he  became  pre-eminent.  Having 
completed  his  theological  course  at  Princeton,  E".  J.,  he  was 
licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  May  6,  1848, 
six  days  before  he  reached  his  majority.  The  youthful  preacher 
soon  attracted  attention  by  his  discourses,  which  were  rich  in  elo- 
quent diction  and  sound  instruction.  He  was  called  to  the  church 
at  Marion,  Alabama,  in  October,  1849.  Such  was  his  aptness  to 
teach  that  he  was  elected  to  the  Professorship  which  had  been 
made  vacant  by  the  death  of  his  father  ten  years  before,  viz., 
that  of  English  Literature  and  Belles-Lettres.  He  accepted  this 
position  and  became  distinguished  for  the  clearness  of  his  instruc- 
tions, and  at  the  same  time  an  eminent  example  of  the  art  of  elo- 
quence which  he  taught. 

(6) 


6  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

Prof.  W.  S.  Wyman,  of  the  University  of  Alabama,  says  of 
him  at  this  period":  "  When  the  Kev.  John  W.  Pratt  became  the 
Professor  of  Eiighsh  Literature  at  the  beginning  of  the  collegiate 
year  1850-51,  I  was  a  member  of  the  senior  class.     After  I  was 
graduated  in  1851  I  became  a  member  of  the  Faculty,  and  I  con- 
tinued to  be  a  colleague  of  Mr.  Pratt  during  the  whole  of  his 
fifteen  years'  stay  in  the  University.     I  feel,  therefore,  quite 
competent  to  speak  of  him  during  this  part  of  his  life.     It  was 
the  duty  of  the  Professor  of  English  Literature  to  teach  Khetoric, 
Logic,  Ancient  and  Modern  History,  and  the  History  of  English 
Literature,  to  supervise  the  writing  of  Essays  and  Orations  by  the 
three  higher  classes  in  the  University,  and  to  train  the  classes  in 
Oratory.     Mr.  Pratt  was  only  twenty-three  years  of  age  when  he 
entered  upon  the  important  duties  of  this  professorship.    He  had 
the  enthusiasm  of  youth  and  a  great  love  for  his  work.     He  was 
himself  an  eloquent  orator,  the  master  of  a  polished  style,  and 
remarkably  well  read  for  one  of  his  age  in  the  great  masters  of 
Enghsh  Literature.     At  the  outset  he  was  fortunate  enough  to 
inspire  his  pupils  with  something  of  his  own  ardor  in  the  study 
of  the  great  exemplars  of  a  pure  English  style.     From  causes 
not  necessary  to  be  mentioned  here,  the  Department  of  English 
in  the  University  had  been  for  ten  years  previously  in  a  languish- 
ing condition.     The  writing  of  Essays  had  been  regarded  by  the 
students  as  a  heavy  task  ;  and  the  revision  of  them  by  the  Pro- 
fessors in  charge  for  the  time  being  had  been  for  the  most  part 
perfunctory.     Practice  in  oratory  had  been  confined  to  the  dec- 
?amation  of  select  pieces  by  the  classes  once  a  month  before  the 
President  of  the  University.     Mr.  Pratt  at  once  introduced  a 
new  and  thorough  system  for  the  revision  of  original  compositions, 
the  result  of  which  proved  to  be  so  excellent  that  the  same  system 
has  been  retained  with  but  slight  modifications  to  the  present 
time.     In  Oratory  he  began  to  train  every  student  separately 
and  systematically.     Prior  to  Mr.  Pratt's  time  the  Department  of 
Khetoric  had  been  limited  to  the  study  of  some  short  superficial 
book  on  literary  criticism.     His  best  work  here  was  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  thorough  treatise  on  the  art  of  Invention,  a  book  which 
required  hai'd  study  to  master,  but  the  beneficial  results  of  the 
hard  study  were  soon  manifested  in  the  disciplined  intellects  of 
the  advanced  scholars.     Mr.  Pratt  was  deeply  interested  during 
his  residence  at  the  University  in  the  moral  and  religious  im- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  7 

provement  of  the  students.  He  organized  classes  for  the  study 
of  the  Bible  among  the  students,  and  trained  them  in  the  lessons. 
The  students'  prayer-meeting  was,  as  I  well  remember,  conducted 
by  him,  and  was  for  a  long  time  held  at  his  house." 

Mr.  Pratt  occupied  this  chair  until  1865,  when  the  University 
was  suspended  by  the  ravages  of  the  Civil  "War.  It  was  during 
this  period  he  accumulated  the  store  of  varied  learning  which 
rendered  his  preaching  so  profound  and  instructive.  He  never 
made  any  display  of  it,  for  he  despised  pedantry,  but  it  gave 
weight,  accuracy,  variety,  and  beauty  to  his  exposition  of  divine 
truth.  He  by  no  means  forsook  the  ministry  while  Professor. 
He  loved  to  preach,  and  he  was  often  called  upon.  He  preached 
frequently  in  the  city,  but  he  was  especially  fond  of  his  little 
rural  charge,  preaching  with  equal  acceptability  to  all  classes  of 
people.  He  charmed  and  edified  the  most  plain  and  unlettered, 
and  attracted  the  most  highly  cultivated,  because  he  preached  the 
simple  Gospel  with  transparent  clearness  and  earnestness.  Many 
have  regretted  that  so  much  of  the  prime  of  his  life  was  spent  in 
the  class-room,  but  he  was  thereby  acquiring  his  higher  education 
for  the  pulpit,  and  for  those  triumphs  of  sacred  eloquence  which 
crowned  his  usefulness  and  made  him  famous  in  after-life. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  circumstances  led  him  to  open  a  school 
in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  In  the  second  year  of  his  stay  there  he  re- 
ceived and  accepted  a  call  to  the  cultivated  and  important  church 
in  Lexington,  Virginia. 

Eev.  James  H.  Smith,  of  Lexington,  Virginia,  writes  of  his 
work  there :  "  It  would  have  been  difficult  for  him  to  find  a 
centre  more  favorable  for  sending  out  his  influence  in  wide  and 
far-reaching  streams,  than  he  found  in  the  church  at  Lexington. 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  situated  there,  held  within  her 
halls  three  hundred  students,  and  the  Virginia  Military  Institute 
three  hundred  more.  His  peculiar  gifts  were  exactly  those  best 
calculated  to  attract  and  influence  young  men.  Every  resident 
of  Lexington,  and  every  student  of  either  of  these  schools  during 
the  years  of  his  ministry  there,  will  remember  without  prompt- 
ing, how  intense  was  the  interest  excited  and  maintained  by  his 
preaching.  All  classes  in  the  community,  people  of  every  differ- 
ing faith,  and  people  of  none,  were  drawn  to  his  services.  Old 
men,  whose  time-seared  hearts  had  grown  callous  with  long  in- 
difference, exhibited  an  unwonted  sensibility.     Young  men  dis- 


8  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

covered  with  deliglit  that  the  truths  of  revelation  furnish  worthier 
themes  for  a  higher  eloquence  than  can  be  inspired  by  subjects 
less  supreme.  It  would  be  harder,  perhaps,  to  calculate  the 
harvest  of  this  ministry  than  that  of  most  others,  for  the  sower 
planted,  not  in  a  single  field,  but  stood  as  it  were  on  a  mountain 
and  cast  his  seeds  to  the  winds,  which  bore  them  wherever  the 
Southern  youth  there  congregated  around  him  have  made  their 
thousand  homes." 

He  continued  to  be  a  diligent  student  and  prepared  all  his 
public  exercises  with  extraordinary  labor  and  care.  The  discern- 
ing stranger  who  happened  to  hear  him  at  the  weekly  prayer- 
meeting  on  the  stormiest  night,  had  as  fair  an  opportunity  of  es- 
timating his  powers  as  those  who  sat  before  him  in  the  crowded 
church.  He  spoke  words  thoroughly  credible  when  he  declared 
that  he  always  did  his  iest.  He  prepared  "  beaten  oil "  for  the 
sanctuary — hence  the  finished  and  enduring  character  of  his  dis- 
courses, which  could  stand  the  most  rigid  criticism,  and  which  all 
his  hearers  and  readers  feel  assured  will  secure  them  a  place  in 
the  permanent  literature  of  the  pulpit.  His  sermons  will  live 
and  will  continue  to  delight  and  edify  the  Church.  In  place, 
however,  of  any  further  estimate  of  our  own,  we  prefer  to  insert 
the  following  true  and  beautiful  tribute  from  the  Hon.  J.  Ran- 
dolph Tucker,  who  had  ample  capacity  and  opportunity  to  form 
a  correct  judgment,  having  been  a  member  of  his  church  while 
he  lived  in  Lexnngton,  Virginia  : 

"  The  death  of  Dr.  Pratt  was  sincerely  a  grief  to  me,  for  I 
liad  been  privileged  to  know  him  for  years  as  pastor,  preacher,  and 
friend.  He  was  a  very  remarkal)le  man  in  the  endowments  of 
his  mind,  as  well  as  in  the  qualities  which  made  up  his  character. 
He  had  an  acute  and  subtle  analytic  power,  which  enabled  him 
to  discover  the  germs  of  truth,  and  to  detect  the  concealed  errors 
in  the  logic  of  his  opponent.  This  keen  insight  into  the  subject 
of  his  criticism  or  of  his  discussion,  made  his  discourse  as  clear 
as  the  sunlight.  About  his  thought,  and  about  his  expression  of 
it,  there  were  no  clouds  of  doubt  or  of  uncertainty.  Ko  one 
could  fail  to  see  what  he  saw,  to  understand  what  he  thought,  for 
it  was  the  pure  diamond  idea  reflected  in  the  mirror  of  a  style 
which  was  simple,  yet  ornate  in  its  strong,  fervid,  and  classic 
rhetoric.  He  was  logical,  and  yet  imaginative,  original,  sug- 
gestive, and  fertile  in  his  conceptions,  and  powerful  in  setting 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.     .  9 

them  forth  with  all  the  beauties  of  expression  with  which  a 
thorough  education  and  refined  literary  taste  could  invest  human 
thought. 

"  He  was  a  genuine  Calvinist,  and  so  strongly  held  the  Pauline 
type  of  the  Christian  faith  that  his  mind  never  wavered  in  the 
most  profound  speculations,  and  his  heart  was  anchored  on  the 
'Rock  of  Ages,'  with  implicit  and  humble  trust.  The  grand 
truths  of  the  Bible  he  held  with  an  intellectual  enthusiasm  which 
stirred  his  whole  nature  with  a  deeply  sympathetic  thrill,  and 
which  sometimes  shook  his  bodily  frame  with  visible  emotion ; 
and  yet,  though  his  mind  was  so  nerved  by  the  grandeur  of 
truth,  his  sympathetic  nature  was  alive  to  the  appeals  of  distress 
and  affliction.  In  the  chamber  of  sickness  and  death  he  poured 
the  oil  of  consolation  upon  the  wounds  of  bereavement  with 
gentleness,  judgment,  and  tender  sympathy.  As  a  man  he  was 
brave,  manly,  candid,  and  sincere.  He  was  liberal  in  his  charity 
and  generous  without  stint.  As  a  friend  he  was  constant  and 
reliable,  because  while  warm  in  his  regard  his  feelings  never 
swayed  his  judgment. 

"  As  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  he  was  cogent  in  reasoning,  lu- 
minous in  expression,  critical  in  exegesis,  earnest  in  exhortation, 
and  always  and  eminently  instructive,  practical,  and  Scriptural. 
He  adhered  to  the  written  word  with  fidelity,  and  condemned 
with  force  and  without  compromise  all  the  so-called  rationalism 
which  wandered  from  the  Scripture  into  the  mazes  of  a  specula- 
tive and  false  philosophy.  As  a  pastor  he  was  discreet,  conserva- 
tive, and  practical.  He  was  not  obtrusive  of  counsel,  but  ever 
ready  to  give  it ;  nor  intrusive  into  the  domestic  habits  of  his 
people,  yet  ever  willing  to  advise  in  regard  to  them.  He  sought 
to  lead  men  to  the  great  Teacher  to  be  taught  by  Him,  and  never 
did  it  by  ignoble  appeals  to  fear,  nor  by  an  unworthy  play  upon 
the  animal  emotions  of  his  hearers.  He  preached  the  truth  as  it 
is  in  Jesus,  as  the  best  thing  for  the  man  ;  with  which  he  would 
have  peace  and  eternal  rest,  without  which  he  must  have  unrest 
and  eternal  despair.  Such  is  my  imperfect  estimate  of  Pr. 
Pratt.  His  memory  is  one  of  great  value  to  me,  in  the  insti-uc- 
tions  I  received  from  him,  in  the  guidance  I  derived  from  his 
counsel,  and  in  the  support  I  had  from  his  friendship." 

After  six  years  in  this  important  field  he  accepted  the  Presi- 
dency of  Central  University  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  a  young 


10  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

institution  established  bj  the  Synod  of  Kentucky,  To  its  organ- 
ization and  management  he  devoted  himself  for  six  years,  and 
found  an  ample  held  for  bis  large  experience  and  eminent  scho- 
lastic and  practical  ability.  At  the  same  time  he  occupied  for 
three  years  the  pulpit  of  the  Presbyterian  church  of  Richmond. 
This  was  his  last  connection  \vitli  college  work.  Professor  L,  G. 
Barbour,  of  Central  University,  said  of  him  : 

"  He  had  in  a  high  degree  two  qualities  not  always  conjoined, 
but  both  of  them  needful  in  the  constitution  of  a  first-class 
teacher :  great  quickness  of  apprehension  and  unusual  breadth  of 
view.  He  saw  into  the  lesser  and  intricate  points  of  a  subject, 
and  his  eye  swept  over  the  broad  relation  of  its  parts  and  divi- 
sions ;  hence  he  gave  clearness  of  detail  and  logical  method  in 
mass.  When  I  first  knew  him  at  Princeton  Theological  Seminary 
he  was  noted  for  vivacity  and  humor.  In  his  latter  years  a  gleam 
of  his  old  manner  would  occasionally  flash  out  and  remind  me 
of  his  early  manhood.  Add  to  this  his  great  geniality  and  unaf- 
fected goodness  of  heart  which  made  him  so  popular  among  the 
students  of  Central  University,  and  you  will  have  some  of  the 
prime  elements  of  a  teacher." 

Resigning  his  Presidency  in  18T8,  he  supplied  for  some  time, 
during  the  absence  of  the  pastor,  Eev.  T.  H.  Skinner,  D.D.,  the 
pulpit  of  the  Second  Presbyterian  church  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
where  he  fully  sustained  his  already  great  reputation  as  a  preacher. 
Indeed  he  so  impressed  himself  upon  a  number  of  Christian  gen- 
tlemen of  that  city  that  they  induced  him  to  attempt  a  novel  en- 
terprise, to  bring  into  contact  with  the  masses  his  strong  and 
attractive  presentation  of  Gospel  truth  without  interfering  with 
the  regular  exercises  of  the  churches.  For  this  purpose  the  im- 
mense Music  Hall  was  rented,  and  a  service  held  every  Sunday 
afternoon.  It  proved  all  they  had  hoped  for.  The  attendance 
was  seldom  less  than  three  thousand,  and  often  reached  five, 
gatliered  from  all  churches  and  from  all  ranks  in  society,  includ- 
ing multitudes  not  accustomed  to  attend  any  religious  service. 
Here  he  found  the  grandest  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  splendid 
powers.  His  noble  intellectual  face  attracted  every  eye.  He 
commanded  perfect  order  and  universal  rapt  attention.  His 
strong,  clear,  melodious  voice,  always  perfectly  modulated, 
reached  every  ear  and  rung  out  with  distinct  enunciation,  force- 
ful emphasis,  and  often  with  tremulous  notes  as  he  proclaimed 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  H 

tbe  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God.  He  made  no  failures, 
was  always  equal  to  himself,  and  was  manifestly  made  "  a  pol- 
ished shaft  in  Jehovah's  quiver,"  and  doubtless  pierced  many  a 
doubt-clad  mind  and  many  a  sin-hardened  heart. 

In  1881  he  became  the  successor  of  the  distinffuished  Dr. 
Stuart  Robinson  as  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  in  Louisville, 
Kentucky.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  this  important  charge  he 
continued  to  exercise  his  extraordinary  gifts  and  labors  as  Christ's 
minister  for  Christ's  people  and  for  the  conversion  of  sinners. 
The  following  extract,  taken  from  an  address  delivered  at  a  con- 
gregational meeting  by  Col.  Bennett  H.  Young,  will  best  show 
the  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by  this  church : 

"  The  Southern  pulpit,  in  the  past  thirty  years,  has  produced 
many  widely  renowned  theologians  and  preachers.  Part  are 
dead  and  some  remain  with  us,  but  Dr.  Pratt,  in  some  respects, 
was  surpassed  by  none.  As  a  writer  of  sermons,  in  my  opinion 
he  had  no  equal  in  the  American  pulpit.  There  was  a  pathos, 
tenderness,  eloquence,  combined  with  a  comprehension  of  man's 
spiritual  and  moral  forces,  which  placed  him  in  the  very  front 
rank  of  modern  preachers. 

"  In  the  elaboration  of  truth,  as  set  forth  in  our  standards ;  in 
the  application  of  doctrine  to  daily  life  and  as  a  solace  in  human 
sorrow ;  in  the  dignity  and  grandeur  of  the  mental  and  spiritual 
powers  of  man,  his  sermons  are  a  marvel,  not  only  of  oratorical 
finish,  but  of  philosophical  acumen  and  discrimination.  His 
discourses  on  the  value  of  human  life  in  its  relation  to  God,  the 
resurrection,  and  man's  destiny  here  and  hereafter,  are  produc- 
tions which  will  do  credit  to  any  age  and  any  man. 

"  Confiding  in  his  nature,  tender  and  gentle  in  all  his  emotions, 
affectionate  in  disposition,  firm  in  his  Christian  faith,  with  an 
unconditional  consecration  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  he  was  a  re- 
markable and  unusual  character,  one  the  Church  should  reverence 
and  remember,  and  one  whom  his  friends  will  never  forget. 

"  I  am  aware  that  these  are  strong  terms  I  have  used  in  refer- 
ence to  my  departed  friend,  but  he  was  worthy  of  all  of  them, 
and  his  life  has  been  a  blessing  to  the  Church  and  a  comfort  and 
pleasure  to  those  who  knew  his  personal  worth  and  his  earnest, 
constant  Christian  testimony. 

"  In  a  less  restricted  field  than  was  given  him  he  would  have 
shone  with  increased  brilliancy.     He  possessed  the  power  of  stir- 


12  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

ring  and  developing  the  strongest  and  highest  spiritual  aspira- 
tions, and  none  ever  heard  his  words  who  did  not  feel  impressed 
with  nobler  ideas  of  God  and  truer  and  better  conceptions  of 
man's  duties  and  responsibihties  to  his  Creator  and  Redeemer. 
Wherever  he  preached,  his  pure  gospel,  his  zealous,  beautiful  life, 
and  his  strong  intellectual  force  will  long  be  felt  in  the  hearts 
and  characters  of  his  hearers. 

"  Nor  should  his  efforts  be  permitted  to  die.  The  thoughts  of 
such  a  mind  justify  and  demand  preservation  and  pubhcation,  and 
the  force  of  his  words  will  influence  and  direct  a  better  life  in 
those  who  may  read,  long  after  his  name  and  his  works  are  for- 
gotten." 

He  supplied  the  Second  Church  in  Memphis,  Tennessee,  for 
several  months  the  last  year  of  his  life.  In  the  eloquent  words 
of  Judge  Heiskell  we  see  the  impression  he  made  on  this  people : 
"  My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Pratt  extended  only  through  the 
few  months  he  ministered  to  us  last  summer.  In  that  brief 
period  I  learned  to  respect,  to  honor,  and  to  love  him.  Hso  man 
I  «ver  met  impressed  me  more  profoundly.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
say  he  was  one  of  the  most  scholarly  men  I  ever  knew.  While 
his  sermons  were  masterful  in  substance,  his  terse  and  elegant 
style  made  them  always  charming.  His  diction  was  ornate, 
chaste,  and  wonderfully  graceful.  His  sentences,  burdened  with 
logical  reasoning  and  rich  and  helpful  thought,  flowed  easily  and 
felicitously.  He  never  paused  for  a  word,  and  always  chose  the 
one  most  suitable  to  express  his  meaning,  so  that  the  profundity 
and  dignity  of  his  utterances  were  made  thoroughly  interesting 
and  enjoyable  by  the  appropriate  language  in  which  he  clothed 
them.  He  was  a  rhetorician,  an  orator,  and,  what  seems  almost 
a  lost  art,  he  was  an  admirable  reader.  But  these  accomplish- 
ments were  but  the  trappings  of  the  sincere  faith  and  Cliristlike 
spirit  that  breathed  in  every  line  and  word  that  he  uttered.  If 
his  prayers  were  always  eloquent,  it  was  because  they  were  the 
simple  pleadings  of  the  child  of  grace,  kneeling  at  his  Father's 
feet,  beseeching  His  favor.  His  help,  and  His  protecting  care. 
His  daily  life  was  a  living  epistle,  '  known  and  read  of  all  men,' 
of  the  beauty,  symmetry,  and  power  of  our  holy  religion.  In- 
deed, he  came  as  near  the  perfect  minister  as  any  one  I  ever 
knew. 

"  With  all  this  and  through  all,  his  deep  humility  and  broad 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  13 

Christian  charity  made  him  lovely  and  beloved  by  all.  Such  a 
man  never  dies.  He  only  leaves  us — to  live.  The  good  that  he 
does  lives  after  him  and  for  ever." 

The  Kev.  M.  H.  Houston,  D.D.,  our  Secretary  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, writes  of  him : 

"  In  the  removal  of  Dr.  Pratt  from  among  us  we  have  lost  one 
of  the  noblest,  most  generous  and  interesting  men  I  ever  knew. 
It  was  always  a  pleasure  and  privilege  to  me  to  be  with  him : 
he  was  always  kind,  always  faithful  as  a  friend,  always  in- 
structive and  stimulating,  and  I  loved  him.  He  was  a  prince 
among  preachers  and  among  men,  and  the  whole  Church  must 
mourn  his  departure." 

Dr.  K.  P.  Farris  speaks  of  him  "  as  one  of  his  dearest  friends, 
a  man  who  honored  me  with  his  confidence,  a  man  in  whom  I 
could  confide,  whose  naturalness  I  admired,  whose  high  attain- 
ments I  recognized  and  respected,  whose  grand  preaching  I  en- 
joyed and  boasted  of." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Basil  Manly,  of  the  Baptist  Church,  the  friend 
of  his  youth,  wi-ites  of  him :  "In  the  year  1837,  at  the  reorgan- 
ization of  the  University  of  Alabama  at  Tuscaloosa,  when  my 
father  became  President  of  the  University,  the  only  personal  re- 
quest he  made  of  the  Trustees  was,  to  appoint  the  Rev.  Horace 
S.  Pratt,  of  Georgia,  to  be  one  of  his  colleagues.  The  intimacy 
and  confidence  already  subsisting  between  them  was  only  in- 
creased by  their  association  in  the  work  of  the  University.  Their 
diverse  characteristics  and  tendencies  made  each  the  complement 
of  the  other.  It  would  sometimes  be  remarked,  when  Dr.  Pratt 
had  preached  in  the  morning  and  Dr.  Manly  in  the  evening, 
that  they  had  had  first  '  the  feast  of  reason,'  and  then  '  the  flow  of 
soul.'  Boy  as  I  was  at  the  time  of  Professor  H.  S.  Pratt's  death, 
I  was  impressed  by  the  fact  that  my  father  mourned  over  him 
as  I  do  not  remember  his  mourning  over  any  similar  bereave- 
ment ;  and  one  of  my  most  distinct  recollections  of  those  early 
days  is  the  funeral  sermon  which  he  preached  in  honor  of  his 
friend  in  the  old  capitol  at  Tuscaloosa,  with  the  characteristic 
text,  'Alas,  my  brother.'  The  friendship  of  the  parents  was 
naturally  inherited  by  John  and  myself  as  boys.  Together  in 
our  plays,  in  our  studies,  in  our  plans  and  hopes,  even  occupying 
for  a  time  the  same  room  in  college,  we  grew  up  in  the  utmost 
intimacy,  notwithstanding  he  was  a  year  or  two  my  junior.    And 


14  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

even  subsequently  to  college  life  we  spent  tlie  greater  part  of  our 
time  in  the  Theological  Seminary  together  in  the  venerable 
shades  of  Princeton.  From  the  time  of  leaving  Princeton  our 
lives  necessarily  drifted  somewhat  apart.  Both  of  us  have  been 
busy  men,  deeply  absorbed  in  important  duties,  and  having  little 
leisure  for  seeking  social  enjoyment  outside  of  the  immediate 
sphere  of  our  labors.  He  soon  became  an  honored  and  success- 
ful teacher,  and  occupied  for  years,  under  my  father's  presidency, 
the  chair  of  English  Literature  which  his  father  had  filled,  re- 
newing and  continuing  the  intimacy  of  those  earlier  years  of 
which  I  have  spoken.  Subsequently,  during  the  presidency  of 
Dr.  L.  C.  Garland,  Professor  Pratt  continued  to  give  his  valued 
services  to  the  University,  and  did  as  much  as  any  man  of  his 
time  to  train  the  rising  generation  of  Alabamians  for  meeting 
nobly  the  responsibilities  of  life.  His  impress  is  felt  still  on 
hundreds  of  students  there.  Of  the  latter  periods  of  his  life 
others  can  speak  better  and  more  appropriately  than  I.  My 
memory  clings  to  the  picture  of  the  genial,  venturesome,  affec- 
tionate boy,  who  was  the  most  cherished  friend  of  my  boyhood's 
days,  of  the  young  man  in  college  and  seminary  who  shared 
and  lightened  my  labors  by  his  presence,  and  of  the  grand  and 
impressive  preacher,  who  thundered  forth  the  terrors  of  God's 
law,  or  urged  with  eloquent  persuasiveness  the  invitations  and 
comforts  of  the  Gospel ;  who  made  us  forget  om*selves,  forget 
Lim,  forget  all  our  surroundings,  and  realize  only  the  presence 
and  authority  of  Almighty  God,  whose  messenger  he  was.  With 
a  voice  of  remarkable  clearness  and  force,  a  countenance  that 
blazed  with  emotion  while  speaking,  a  delivery  in  which  art  had 
succeeded  in  concealing  art,  and  nature  spoke  unimpeded ;  and 
above  all,  with  a  compactness  and  energy  of  thought,  and  a  sacred 
fidelity  to  the  Divnne  Word,  which  commanded  at  once  the  intel- 
lects and  the  consciences  of  men, — he  was  emphatically  and  em- 
inently a  Master  of  Assemblies,  During  the  brief  period  of  his 
afternoon  services  at  the  Music  Hall  in  Cincinnati,  the  immense 
crowds  which  he  attracted  and  held,  and  the  profound  im- 
pression produced,  gave  evidence  of  a  power  for  popular  effect 
which  had  hardly  been  suspected  in  the  quiet  and  scholarly 
College  Professor,  I  cannot  but  think  it  desirable  that  some  of 
the  choice  discourses  of  such  a  preacher  as  he  was  should  be  pre- 
served in  a  permanent  form,  not  only  as  a  memorial  of  him  most 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  16 

dear  and  appropriate  to  preserve  his  memory  among  tlie  friends 
that  loved  him,  but  ,as  a  means  of  extending  and  perpetuating  his 
work,  and  of  enlarging  his  influence,  so  that  'he,  being  dead, 
may  yet  speak.' " 

These  are  the  testimonies  of  men  competent  to  appreciate  the 
force,  truth,  and  originality  of  Dr.  Pratt's  character  and  preach- 
ing. Yet  if  all  the  bereaved  whose  sorrows  he  consoled  ;  if  all 
the  poor  and  humble  ones,  who  helpless  to  explain  the  mystery 
of  his  power,  were  joyfully  able  to  di-aw  peace  from  his  word ; 
if  all  the  souls  whose  doubts  he  drove  back  forever  into  the  night 
from  which  they  had  come,  and  all  the  hearts  whose  indifference 
he  melted,  were  to  send  up  their  tribute,  it  would  be  weightier 
by  far,  even  than  that  of  these  thoughtful  analysts  of  the  secret  of 
his  success. 

His  pastorate  at  Louisville  ended  his  regular  work.  His  health 
gave  way  under  his  heavy  pastoral  duties.  He  went  to  Europe 
with  the  hope  of  restoration,  but  in  1883  he  resigned  this,  his 
last  charge.  Yet  even  then  he  continued  to  preach  whenever 
and  wherever  he  had  opportunity :  sometimes  for  a  few 
weeks,  and  sometimes  for  a  few  months  at  a  time,  for  he  was 
resolved  to  give  his  whole  life  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  to  die 
in  harness. 

He  died  at  his  home  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  March  24,  1888. 
There  was  no  gloom  in  his  sick-room,  and  Ave  could  not  believe 
that  death  was  really  coming.  "When  spoken  to  of  dying,  he 
said,  "  Why,  I  have  no  fear  of  death ;  it  has  no  terrors  to  me. 
I  have  fixed  all  that  years  ago,  and  if  I  had  not,  on  this  bed 
would  be  no  place  to  do  it."  He  talked  of  dying  in  the  same 
natural  way  he  would  speak  of  any  other  act  he  expected  to  per- 
form. The  evening  before  he  died,  in  talking  to  a  friend  he 
said:  It  was  such  an  inexpressible  comfort  to  him  now,  when 
too  weak  to  grasp  any  truth  very  strongly,  to  have  these  grand 
doctrines  come  unbidden  to  his  mind.  So  long  had  his  mind 
been  stored  with  the  consolations  of  Divine  truth  for  the  comfort- 
ing of  other  hearts  that  he  now  found  them  adequate  for  his  own 
supply.  Dr.  Pratt  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was  Mary 
Grace  Crabb,  of  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama.  She  left  two  children — 
Grace  Winthrop,  now  Mrs.  Clay  Stacker,  of  Clarksville,  Tennes- 
see, and  Edwin  Alberti  Pratt,  of  Louisville,  Kentucky.  His  sec- 
ond wife  was  Mai-ia  Lindsay  Waddell,  of  Lexington,  Vu-ginia. 


16  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH. 

She  with  two  children,  Harry  Waddell  and  Nettie  "Wood  Pratt, 
survive  him.  Of  four  sisters  and  one  brother,  only  one  sister  is 
now  living — Mrs.  James  "W.  Lapslej,  of  Alabama. 

Dr.  Pratt  was  a  man  of  marked  characteristics,  not  always 
understood — and  perhaps  he  did  not  care  enough  for  that — but 
his  intimate  friends  knew,  appreciated,  and  loved  him.  He  was 
a  man  of  large  and  free-hearted  benevolence.  An  instance  de- 
serving record  is  that,  after  the  emancipation  of  his  slaves,  he 
made  generous  provision  for  them,  and  some  of  them  still  enjoy 
that  kindness,  and  will  continue  to  do  so  while  they  live.  All 
his  fonner  servants  love  and  cherish  him  tenderly.  In  private 
life  he  presented  the  rare  combination  of  a  man  full  of  common 
sense,  eminently  practical  and  systematic  in  all  his  business  habits, 
and  at  the  same  time  deeply  absorbed  in  all  the  religious  and 
literary  work  which  engaged  his  thought  and  attention.  He 
kept  himself  fully  abreast  of  the  times  on  all  questions  of  interest 
before  the  public.  With  nothing  of  professional  cant  about  him, 
he  invited  discussion  on  religious  subjects  with  those  who  seldom 
met,  and  never  sought  the  company  of  Christian  j)eople.  There 
are  two  particulars  in  which  he  was  unlike  many  great  preachers : 
first,  as  a  Pastor  he  was  a  methodical  and  conscientious  visitor 
of  his  flock  ;  and  second,  while  his  sermons  were  so  grand  and  so 
grandly  delivered,  he  by  no  means  slighted  the  other  pai'ts  of  the 
public  worship,  but  filled  them  all  with  beauty  and  power.  He 
was  a  dear  lover  of  sacred  music,  and  showed  great  taste  in  the 
selection  for  the  service  of  song.  His  Scripture-reading  was 
equal  to  an  eloquent  commentary.  But  the  prayer  surpassed  all. 
It  was  more  than  a  sermon,  simple,  humble,  reverent,  earnest, 
comprehensive  of  all  classes  and  topics,  yet  never  tedious,  but 
always  refreshing  and  helpful  to  devotion.  These  were  never  in 
his  view  the  mere  preparatory  services  to  the  sermon,  l3ut  were 
witli  him  the  solemn  worship  of  God.  He  heard  himself,  and  he 
strove  to  make  his  neople  hear,  "  the  stately  steppings  of  Jehovah  " 
in  His  sanctuary. 

The  sermons  which  follow  give  a  true  idea,  not  of  his  delivery, 
which  cannot  be  reproduced,  but  of  the  substance  of  his  preach- 
ing. The  reader  of  these  sermons  who  never  heard  him  preach 
can  never  be  Ijrought  up  to  the  vantage-ground  on  which  they 
will  read  for  whom  every  sentence  will  be  informed  and  inter- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH.  17 

preted  by  the  memory  of  that  matchless  voice  and  irresistible 
delivery.  He  always  preached  the  grand  and  profitable  themes 
of  the  Gospel.  This  selection  is  made  not  to  bring  out  his  great- 
est efforts,  but  to  present  a  comprehensive  and  systematic  view 
of  evangelical  truth. 

Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  1888. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

I._G-rvEN  TO  Christ,  or  Election 25 

"All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to  me  ;  and  him 
that  cometh  to  me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." — John  vi.  37. 

II._God's  Sovereignty 39 

"The  Lord  reigneth;  let  the  earth  rejoice." — Psalm  xcvii.  1. 
"The  Lord  reigneth ;  let  the  people  tremble." — Psalm  xcix.  1. 

in. — Regeneration 50 

"  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  Except  a  man  be  bom  again, 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."— John  iii.  3. 

rV.— Faith 57 

"Precious  faith."— 2  Peter  i.  1. 

v.— Justification 65 

"  Being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God."— Rom.  v.  1. 

VI.— Conviction 72 

"I  remembered  God  and  was  troubled." — Psalm  Ixxvii.  3. 

VII.— Peace 82 

"Acquaint  now  thyself  with  Him  and  be  at  peace." — Job 
xxii.  21. 

VIII.— Pardon 89 

"  For  Thy  name's  sake,  0  Lord,  pardon  mine  iniquity ;  for  it 
is  great."— Psalm  xxv.  11. 

IX.— Look  and  Live 97 

"And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so 
must  the  Son  of  Man  be  lifted  Tip ;  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."— John 

iii.  14,  15. 

(19) 


20 


CONTENTS. 


PAOE 

X.— Grace  Eeigning 105 

"For  sin  shall  not  have  dommion  over  you;  for  ye  are  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  Grace."— Eomans  vi.  14. 

XI.— True  Freedom 117 

"If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free 
indeed."— John  viii.  36. 

Xn.— Light 131 

"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."— Matthew  v.  14. 

XIII.— Preparing  an  Ark 142 

"  By  faith  Noah,  being  warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as 
yet,  moved  with  fear,  prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his 
house ;  by  the  which  he  condemned  the  world,  and  became 
heir  of  the  righteousness  which  is  by  faith." — Hebrews  xi.  7. 

XIV.— The  Sabbath 155 

"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sab- 
bath."—Mark  ii.  27. 

XV.— What  is  Life  ? 165 

"  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone." — Matthew  iv.  4. 

XVI.— Fragments 180 

"Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." 
—John  vi.  12. 

XVII.— The  Glory  op  God 189 

"Whether  therefore  ye  eat,  or  di-ink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do 
all  to  the  glory  of  God."— 1  Corinthians  x.  31. 

XVIII.— The  World  and  the  Soul 201 

"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world, 
and  lose  his  ovm  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  ex- 
change for  his  soul  ?  "—Mark  viii.  36,  37. 

XIX.- Special  Providence 210 

"And  a  certain  man  drew  a  bow  at  a  venture,  and  smote  the 
king  of  Israel  between  the  joints  of  the  harness." — 1  Kings 
xxii.  34. 

XX.— Influence 223 

"And  that  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity." — ^Joshua 
xxii.  20. 


CONTENTS. 


21 


XXI.— Stewardship  (A  New- Year's  Sermon) 238 

"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship."— Luke  xvi.  2. 

XXII.— Consolation 257 

"And  the  cup  was  found  in  Benjamin's  sack."— Gen.  xliv.  12. 

XXIII. — Resurrection 265 

"  The  Power  of  His  Resurrection."— Philippians  iii.  10. 

XXIV.— Heaven 279 

' '  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions :  if  it  were  not  so, 
I  would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you."— 
John  xiv.  2. 


Prayers. 


296 


"MOREOVER,  WHOM  HE  DID  PREDESTINATE,  THEM  HE 
ALSO  CALLED  :  AND  WHOM  HE  CALLED,  THEM  HE 
ALSO  JUSTIFIED  :  AND  WHOM  HE  JUSTIFIED,  THEM 
HE  ALSO  GLORIFIED."— Rom.  vm.  30. 


(23) 


I. 

GIYE:N^  to  CHRIST. 

"  All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come  to  me  ;  and  him  that  cometh  to 
me,  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out." — John  vi.  37. 

It  is  a  very  general,  but  erroneous,  belief  that  Calvinists  get  all 
their  "bard"  theology  from  the  Apostle  Paul.  I  would,  there- 
fore, have  you  observe  that  the  text  is  the  language  of  our  Lord 
himself. 

In  it.  He  mentions  a  class  of  persons  who  seem  to  enlist  His 
special  affection.  They  are  those  whom  God  the  Father  had  given 
Him.  He  mentions  them  again  in  the  thirty-ninth  verse  of  this 
chapter.  "  And  this  is  the  Father's  will,  which  hath  sent  me, 
that  of  all  which  He  hath  given  me,  I  should  lose  nothing,  but 
should  raise  it  up  again  at  the  last  day."  And,  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter  of  this  same  Gospel,  He  refers  to  this  same  class  five 
times,  in  the  following  words :  "  That  He  should  give  eternal  life 
to  as  many  as  Thou  hast  given  Him  ";  "  I  have  manifested  Thy 
name  unto  the  men  which  Thou  gavest  me  out  of  the  world ; 
Thine  they  were,  and  Thou  gavest  them  me ;  I  pray  not  for  the 
world,  but  for  them  which  Thou  hast  given  me ";  "  Those  that 
Thou  gavest  me  I  have  kept ";  "  Father,  I  will  that  they  also 
whom  Thou  hast  given  me  be  with  me  where  I  am."  And,  in 
the  tenth  chapter  of  this  same  Gospel :  "  My  sheep  hear  my 
voice,  and  I  know  them,  and  they  follow  me,  and  I  give  unto 
them  eternal  life ;  and  they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any 
man  pluck  them  out  of  my  hand ;  my  Father  which  gave  them 
me  is  greater  than  all." 

Now,  here  is  a  most  interesting  class  of  persons  of  whom  our 
Lord  is  speaking.  Let  us  see  what  can  be  said  about  this  class  on 
the  authority  of  Christ  himseK. 

(25) 


26  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

1.  All  that  the  Father  giveth  Him  shall  come  to  Him ;  i.  e., 
shall  have  faith  in  Him;  for  this  is  what  coming  to  Christ 
means. 

2.  Of  all  these,  He  should  lose  none,  but  would  raise  them  up 
at  the  last  day. 

3.  He  would  give  eternal  life  to  as  many  as  the  Father  had 
given  Him. 

4.  He  would  manifest  the  Father's  name  to  them,  and  they 
should  keep  His  "Word. 

5.  They  alone  were  the  objects  of  His  prayer  to  the  Father. 
He  expressly  excludes  the  rest  of  the  world.  "  I  pray  not  for 
the  world,  but  for  themP 

6.  They  are  "  kept,"  so  that  none  of  them  is  lost. 

Y.  It  was  the  will  of  Christ  that  they  should  be  forever  with 
Him  to  behold  His  glory. 

8.  As  His  sheep.  He  knew  each  individual  of  the  flock ;  they 
hear  His  voice,  and  they  follow  Him,  and  they  are  safe  in  Bis 
care,  so  that  no  man  can  pluck  them  out  of  His  hands. 

Thus,  we  see,  in  regard  to  this  interesting  class  of  men  whom 
Christ  describes  as  given  to  Him,  that  they  have  faith  in  HIbi  ; 
that  they  follow  and  obey  Him ;  that  they  are  secure  in  the  pos- 
session of  eternal  life ;  that  they  will  be  raised  in  a  glorious  xh^ 
urrection  at  the  last  day ;  and  that  they  will  be  forever  with 
Christ  in  heaven  to  see  His  glory.  Now,  it  is  perfectly  clear 
that  all  this  can  be  said  only  of  those  who  are  saved  through  the 
atonement  of  Christ.  These  things  cannot  be  said  of  any  men 
except  those  who,  having  believed  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Chi'ist,  have 
eternal  life.  It  follows,  then,  inevitably,  that  all  those  who  are 
saved  were,  in  some  sense,  given  to  Christ  by  God  the  Father. 
The  only  point  that  I  insist  on  here  is,  that  the  description  of 
those  given  to  Him  by  the  Father  corresponds  in  every  particular 
with  what  the  Scriptures  say  in  regard  to  those  who  are  finally 
saved.  The  statement,  you  see,  does  not  touch  the  question 
whether  few,  or  many,  or  all  are  saved.  It  only  asserts  that  all 
who  are  saved  are  designated  by  Christ  as  given  to  Ilim  hy  God 
the  Father.  If  all  men  are  at  last  saved,  as  the  Universalist 
maintains,  then  all  men  were  given  to  Christ.    If  only  a  portion 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  27 

of  the  race  is  saved,  then  that  portion  was,  in  some  sense,  given 
to  Christ.  The  two  classes,  "  the  saved "  and  "  the  given  to 
Christ^''  are  exactly  coterminous  and  identical,  like  two  circles  of 
the  same  diameter  put  one  above  the  other.  Whoever  belongs 
to  the  one  class  belongs  to  the  other.  Whoever  is  excluded  from 
the  one  class  is  excluded  from  the  other. 

Now,  in  regard  to  this  class  of  persons,  who  may  be  indiffer- 
ently designated  as  "  the  saved "  or  as  "  the  given  to  Christ,^^ 
there  are  some  things  that  are  self-evident. 

1.  If  they  were  given  to  Christ,  it  must  have  been  as  individ- 
uals that  they  were  thus  given,  and  not  as  a  class.  As  men  are 
not  saved  in  masses  as  such,  neither  could  they  have  been  given 
to  Christ  in  an  indistinguishable  mass.  They  nmst  have  been 
given  to  Him  as  individuals.  This  is  made  evident  by  the  fact 
that  He  says :  "Z  know  my  sheep.''''  The  figure  is  drawn  from 
pastoral  life.  In  Palestine,  the  shepherd  was  identified  with  his 
sheep  far  more  than  is  the  case  in  this  country.  He  knew  all  his 
sheep  by  sight,  and  each  sheep  had  a  name  ;  and  when  he  called 
them  by  name,  they  knew  him  and  recognized  his  voice.  Now, 
although  the  shepherds  of  our  country  know  their  sheep  by 
sight,  and  say  there  is  as  much  difference  in  the  faces  of  sheep  as 
of  men,  they  have  not,  as  a  rule,  attained  the  art  of  teaching 
their  sheep  to  recognize  their  names.  But  it  is  not  so  in  the 
East.  There  the  shepherds  can  call  any  particular  sheep  by 
name,  and  it  will  leave  its  pasturage  and  its  companions  and  come 
to  him.  Hence,  our  Lord  refers  to  a  well-known  fact  when  He 
says :  "  The  sheep  hear  his  voice,  and  he  calleth  his  own  sheep 
by  name  and  leadeth  them  out."  Then,  immediately  afterward, 
He  says :  "  I  am  the  good  Shej)herd  and  know  my  sheep,  and  am 
known  of  mine,^^  implying  that  He  knows  aU  those  whom  the 
Father  hath  given  Him  hy  their  names. 

2.  But,  if  all  those  whom  the  Father  gave  Him  were  given  to 
Him  hy  name,  then  it  follows,  of  necessity,  that  this  class  must 
consist  of  a  definite  number.  To  conceive  of  an  indefinite  num- 
ber of  names  is  an  absurdity.  The  way  in  which  we  arrive  at  an 
enumeration  of  the  men  in  an  army,  or  in  a  congregation,  or  in 


28  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

a  conntry,  when  the  census  is  taken,  is  by  setting  down  their 
names.  As  soon  as  the  names  were  enrolled,  we  can  fix  the 
number  exactly ;  we  know  precisely  how  many  are  in  the  list. 
This  is  perfectly  clear,  so  that  I  need  not  dwell  on  it  a  moment. 

3.  Another  thing  seems  to  follow  just  here.  If  all  men  had 
been  given  to  Christ  by  the  Father,  such  careful  specification 
of  them  by  name  would  not  have  been  necessary.  If  the  whole 
race,  without  exception,  had  been  included  in  the  gift,  it  would 
have  been  enough  to  designate  them  simply  by  the  generic  title 
of  m€ii.  But  our  Lord  distinctly  says  that  all  men  were  not  thus 
included  in  the  paternal  gift,  for  He  says  to  the  Jews  :  "  Ye  'be- 
lieve not,  because  ye  are  not  of  my  sheep^  and,  in  another  place, 
He  says :  "  I  pray  not  for  the  world,  but  for  them  wliich  Thou 
hast  given  me,"  clearly  showing  that  all  men  were  not  included 
in  this  gift ;  and,  in  another  place,  still  more  distinctly.  He  des- 
ignates them  as  ''^the  men  whom  Thou  gavest  me  out  of  the 
world^''  i.  e.,  they  were  separated  from  the  mass  of  mankind. 
Now,  from  the  fact  that  those  given  to  Christ  out  of  the 
world  are  known  by  name,  it  follows,  of  necessity,  that  they 
must  have  been  selected  out  of  the  mass  of  mankind.  The  only 
way  in  which  it  was  possible  to  give  to  Him  a  definite  number  of 
Individuals,  whose  names  were  known,  was  to  call  their  names, 
one  by  one.  And  this  implies  a  selection — a  passing  by  of  others 
whose  names  were  equally  known  to  God,  but  whom  He  did  not 
choose  to  give  His  Son  from  out  of  the  world. 

Now,  everything  that  I  have  said  thus  far  is  based  directly  on 
the  very  language  of  Christ  himself.  Let  us,  before  we  go  a  step 
farther,  see  what  we  have  established. 

(1.)  That  Christ  speaks  of  a  body  of  men  given  Him  by  the 
Father,  selected  from  out  of  the  mass  of  men  whom  He  calls 
"  the  world?'' 

(2.)  That  this  body  of  men  given  to  Christ  is  identical  with 
those  wlio  are  saved,  inasmuch  as  the  description  given  of  them 
corresponds  exactly  with  that  elsewhere  given  of  those  whose 
names  are  written  in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life. 

(3.)  That  they  were  given  to  Christ  as  individuals,  and  not  as  a 
class. 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  29 

(4.)  That  they  were  given  to  Him  hy  name,  and  that  He  knows 
the  name  of  each. 

(5.)  That  the  number  of  them  mnst  be  definite. 

It  is  impossible  to  deny  any  one  of  these  propositions  if  all 
that  Christ  says  about  those  "  given  to  Him  by  the  Father "  is 
kept  in  mind. 

I.  And  now  the  question  arises,  When  were  these  men  given  hy 
the  Father  to  the  Son  ? 

This  is  to  be  answered  by  referring  to  another  name  which 
our  Lord  applies  to  this  class  of  men.  "We  have  seen  that  they 
are  composed  of  those  whom  God  selected  from  among  the  mass 
of  mankind.  I^ow  our  Lord  calls  this  class  of  men  His  "  electP 
He  speaks  of  the  "  elect  whom  God  hath  chosen."  As  there  can 
be  no  other  class  of  men  in  whom  God  delights  except  those 
whom  He  hath  given  to  His  Son,  it  is  cleai*  that  the  "  elect  whom 
He  hath  chosen "  must  be  the  very  same  men  whom  He  hath 
given  to  Christ,  l^o  amount  of  ingenuity  in  the  torturing  of 
Scripture  to  suit  a  purpose  can  evade  the  conclusion  that  the 
"  elect "  of  whom  our  Lord  often  makes  mention  are  the  same 
men  selected  by  name  and  given  to  Him  by  the  Fatlier  as  "  His 
sheep.''''  The  elect,  according  to  our  Lord,  are  those  for  whose 
sake  the  days  of  trouble  and  darkness  at  the  end  of  the  world  are 
to  be  shortened ;  they  are  those  whom,  of  all  mankind,  it  will  be 
impossible  for  false  christs  and  false  prophets  to  deceive ;  they 
are  those  whom  the  angels  are  to  gather  together  from  the  four 
winds  and  from  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth  at  the  day  of 
judgment.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  they  are  the  very  same  men 
whom  God  selected  out  of  mankind  to  give  to  His  Son.  The 
question,  when  they  were  given  to  Him,  is  to  be  answered  then 
by  answering  this  question,  "When  were  they  selected  or 
chosen  ?  "  This  question  the  other  Scriptures  answer  in  a  hun- 
dred different  forms.  The  elect  were  selected  "  before  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world  ";  i.  e.,  from  all  eternity.  Paul  tells  us  all 
we  can  desire  to  know  on  this  subject.  He  says,  Eph.  i.  4,  that 
they  were  "  chosen  in  Him  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  "; 
and  in  another  place  he  speaks  of  them  as  those  whom  God  hath 


30  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

"  chosen  from  the  leginningP  And  the  Apostle  John,  in  the 
Revelation,  speaks  of  those  whose  "names  are  written  in  the 
Book  of  Life  from  the  foundation  of  the  world"  (Rev.  xvii. 
8).  From  these  Scriptures  we  learn  definitely  that  those  whom 
the  Father  gave  the  Son  were  selected  from  among  men  before 
the  foundation  of  the  world.  If  they  were  selected  from  among 
men  from  all  eternity  in  order  to  he  given  to  Him,  they  were 
given  to  Him  then.,  and  promised  as  His  inheritance  then,  hemg 
then  mentioned  hy  name. 

II.  But  God  knew  that  these  men,  chosen  out  of  the  world, 
would  be  sinners  exactly  like  those  from  among  whom  they  were 
selected. 

On  what  ground,  then,  could  a  God  of  inflexible  justice  elect 
them  to  life  and  glory  %  The  answer  to  this  question  brings  to 
view  what  is  known  as  the  "  Covenant  of  Redeimption."  Ac- 
cording to  this  covenant,  entered  into  between  God  the  Father 
and  God  the  Son,  in  the  counsels  of  eternity,  Christ  engaged  to 
take  the  place  of  all  God's  elect,  and  fulfil  for  them  obedience 
to  the  law  they  had  broken,  and  suffer  for  them  the  penalty 
which  they  had  incurred.  He  becomes  the  Shepherd  of  His 
.■flock  through  an  express  agreement  made  between  Him  and  the 
Father,  by  which,  as  a  good  Shepherd,  He  "  lays  down  His  life 
for  His  sheep."  And  now  you  will  be  able  to  understand  that 
passage  in  the  thirteenth  of  Hebrews :  "  Now  the  God  of  peace 
that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  great 
Shepherd  of  the  sheep.,  through  the  hlood  of  the  everlasting  cove- 
nant.''^ He  became  the  Shepherd  of  the  flock  in  virtue  of  a 
covenant ;  and  this  covenant  was  sealed  with  blood ;  and  although 
His  blood  was  not  yet  actually  shed,  yet  its  virtue  was  already 
recognized  by  God  the  Father;  for  His  engagement  to  shed  His 
blood  in  the  fullness  of  time  was  regarded  by  the  Father  the  same 
as  its  actual  shedding,  and  hence  He  is  called  a  "  Lamb  slain  from 
tlie  foundation  of  the  world." 

The  purpose  of  election  is  very  comprehensive.  "  It  was  the 
purpose  of  God  to  bring  His  people  to  holiness,  to  sonship,  and 
to  eternal  glory.    But  He  never  intended  to  do  this  irrespective 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  Ql 

of  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  it  "was  His  purpose,  as  revealed  in 
Scripture,  to  briug  His  people  to  their  exalted  privileges  through 
a  Redeemer.  It  was  in  Christ  as  their  head  and  representative 
they  were  chosen  to  eternal  life ;  and,  therefore,  in  virtue  of 
what  He  covenanted  to  do  in  their  behalf.  There  is,  therefore,  a 
federal  union  between  Christ  and  His  people — i.  e.,  a  union  aris- 
ing out  of  His  covenant  with  the  Father  by  which  they  become 
His  sheep.  His  possession — which  is  antecedent  to  their  actual 
union  with  Him,  and  which  is  the  source  of  the  actual  union. 
God  gave  a  people  to  His  Son  in  this  Covenant  of  Eedemption. 
Those  included  in  that  covenant,  and  because  they  are  included 
in  it — in  other  words,  because  they  are  in  Christ,  as  their  head 
and  representative — receive  in  time  all  the  benefits  of  redemp- 
tion. Then*  subsequent  voluntary  union  with  Christ  hj  faith  is 
not  the  ground  of  their  federal  union  with  Him,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, their  federal  union  is  the  ground  of  their  voluntary  union. 
It  is,  therefore,  in  Christ  /  i.  e.,  as  united  to  Him  in  the  Cove- 
nant of  Redemption  that  the  people  of  God  are  elected  to  eternal 
life  and  to  all  the  blessings  therewith  connected.  Much  in  this 
same  sense  the  Jews  are  said  to  have  been  chosen  in  Abraham. 
Their  relation  to  Abraham  and  to  God's  covenant  with  him  were 
the  ground  and  reason  of  all  the  peculiar  blessings  they  enjoyed. 
So  their  covenant  union  with  Christ  is  the  ground  of  all  the  ben- 
efits which  the  people  of  God  possess  or  hope  for.  They  loere 
chosen  in  Christ  as  the  Jews  were  chosen  in  AhrahamP — (Hodge.) 

Let  us  stop  just  here  and  recapitulate  the  propositions  estab- 
lished, to  wit : 

That  there  is  a  definite  number  of  men,  whose  names  have 
been  written  in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  whom  God  the  Father  gave  to  His  Son,  to  constitute 
His  flock,  in  an  everlasting  covenant,  by  the  terms  of  which 
Christ  engaged  to  take  their  place,  and  by  the  shedding  of  His 
blood  redeem  them  from  the  punishment  due  to  their  sins  ;  and 
by  thus  taking  their  place  He  became  their  representative  and 
federal  head.  As  their  representative.  He  receives  promises  for 
them,  even  the  promise  of  eternal  life,  and  claims  for  them,  as 


32  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

rightfully  belonging  to  Him,  all  the  blessings  promised  in  His 
Covenant  with  tlie  Father. 

III.  The  question  now  arises,  and  it  is  perfectly  pertinent: 
"Why  should  God  the  Father  elect  some  of  om*  race  to  these  un- 
speakable blessings,  and  pass  others  by?  Why  did  He  write 
certain  names  in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  ?  Why  did  He  leave  out  of  the  list  of  the  myriads 
who  are  saved,  the  names  of  thousands  who  are  lost  ?  Why  did 
He  choose  some  and  not  all  ?  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  fact 
that  He  did  do  it ;  now  why  ? 

Li  reply  to  this  question,  I  remark  that  we  are  to  look  for  the 
reason,  why  God  does  one  thing  rather  than  another,  to  the  same 
source  of  information  from  which  we  learn  that  He  does  it  at  all. 
In  other  words,  there  is  no  room  for  speculation  on  a  subject 
which  is  a  matter  of  pure  revelation.  God  tells  us  why  He  did 
this  thing  of  which  we  are  speaking ;  He  elected  some  and  passed 
others  by,  "  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will."  lie  did 
it  simple/  because  lie  chose  to  do  it,  and  He  does  not  see  fit  in 
His  Word  to  give  any  other  reason.  Men  have  undertaken  to 
vindicate  the  justice  of  God  in  the  purpose  of  election  on  philo- 
sophical grounds.  God  himself  does  not  seek  thus  to  vindicate 
His  own  character.  He  claims  the  right  of  selection,  and  that 
without  rendering  any  other  reason  than  this:  ^^ I  will  have 
'mercy  on  whom  I  will  have  mercy,  and  I  will  have  comjpassion 
on  whom  I  will  have  compassionP 

As  in  the  case  of  Esau  and  Jacob,  before  either  was  born,  or 
had  done  any  good  or  evil,  God  said  :  "  Jacob  have  I  loved,  but 
Esau  have  I  hated  ";  "  That  the  purpose  of  God  according  to  elec- 
tion might  stand,  not  of  works,  but  of  him  that  ealleth  ";  just  so 
in  the  case  of  those  given  to  Christ,  God  prefers  one  to  another, 
without  any  reference  to  the  character  which  they  will  have  after 
they  are  born. 

But  some  man  will  say,  "  This  is  a  frightful  doctrine."  That 
depends  upon  circumstances.  It  is  not  frightful  to  the  true  peo- 
ple of  God.*    But  no  matter  how  the  doctrine  may  be  regarded 

*  On  the  train  from  Cincinnati  to  Lexington,  an  old  man  took  his  seat  be- 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  33 

by  you,  here  it  is  in  the  Bible.  And  the  true  Church  of  Christ 
in  all  ages  has  held  this  doctrine  as  one  of  the  most  precious  in 
the  Word  of  God.  I  shall  not  quote  from  our  standard  authors 
what  they  say  on  this  subject,  because  you  expect  to  find  Presby- 
terian writers  speaking  strongly  upon  it ;  I  shall  simply  quote 
from  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  just 
to  show  you  what  those  who  are  usually  supposed  to  hold  all 
strong  doctrine  in  its  mildest  form  say  in  regard  to  election  : 

"  Predestination  to  life  is  the  everlasting  purpose  of  God, 
whereby  (before  the  foundations  of  the  world  were  laid)  He 
hath  constantly  decreed  by  His  counsel,  secret  to  us,  to  deliver 
from  curse  and  damnation  those  whom  He  hath  chosen  in  Christ 
out  of  mankind,  and  to  bring  them  by  Christ  to  everlasting  sal- 
vation as  vessels  made  to  honor."  This  is  the  statement  of  the 
doctrine.  Now  for  the  comment  upon  it.  "  As  the  godly  con- 
sideration of  Predestination,  and  our  Election  in  Christ,  is  f»ill 
of  sweet,  pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly  persons, 
and  such  as  feel  in  themselves  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ,  mortifying  the  works  of  the  flesh  and  their  earthly  mem- 
bers, and  drawing  up  their  mind  to  high  and  heavenly  things,  as 
well  because  it  does  greatly  establish  and  confirm  their  faith  of 
eternal  salvation  to  be  enjoyed  through  Christ,  as  because  it  does 
fervently  kindle  their  love  toward  God :  So,  for  curious  and 
carnal  persons,  lacking  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  to  have  continually 
before  their  eyes  the  sentence  of  God's  Predestination,  is  a  most 
dangerous  downfall,  whereby  the  devil  doth  thrust  them  cither 
into  desperation,  or  into  wretchedness  of  most  unclean  living,  no 
less  perilous  than  desperation."     (Art.  xvii.) 

lY.  And  now  the  questions  which  have  given  a  great  many 
very  serious  concern  are :  If  the  number  of  elect  is  fixed  and 
definite  ;   if  their  very  names  have  been   recorded  in  a  book 

side  me.  In  the  course  of  a  long  conversation  he  said  :  "  Sir,  if  the  doctrine- 
of  Election  is  eliminated  from  the  Bible,  you  might  as  well  blot  out  all  Scrip- 
ture." He  was  unknown  to  me,  nor  did  he  know  who  I  was.  I  afterward 
learned  from  him  that  he  was  a  preacher  in  the  Christian  (Campbellite)- 
Church. 


34  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

opened  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  how  am  I  to  know 
whether  my  name  is  among  the  number  ?  if  it  should  happen  not 
to  be  included  among  them,  what  is  the  use  of  my  trying  to  secure 
salvation  ?  and  if  it  is  among  them,  why  should  I  give  myself  any 
uneasiness  on  the  subject  ?  To  this  I  answer  that  the  whole  Hst 
of  the  elect  is  among  "  the  secret  things  that  belong  unto  the 
Lord  our  God."  It  is  none  of  your  concern  who  constitute  the 
whole  body  of  those  given  to  Christ.  "  But  those  things  which 
are  revealed  concerning  them  do  belong  to  you  and  to  your  chil- 
dren forever."  Now,  the  text  reveals  concerning  the  elect  the 
only  thing  important  for  you  to  know.  This  is  it,  ^^All  that  the 
Father  hath  given  me  shall  come  to  meP  To  come  to  Christ  is 
only  another  form  of  statement  for  faith  in  Christ.  This  is  a 
perfectly  clear  matter  of  revelation — that  the  moment  a  man 
believes  in  Christ,  that  very  moment  it  is  proved,  so  far  as  he  is 
concerned,  that  he  is  one  of  the  elect.  If  you  want  to  settle  the 
question  definitely  *  and  prove  that  you  are  one  of  the  elect,  all 
you  have  to  do  is  to  accept  Christ  as  your  Saviour.  Just  come  to 
Jlim.,  and  the  question  of  your  being  among  the  number  of  those 
"  given  to  Him  "  is  forever  at  rest.  Here,  you  see,  is  the  visible 
mark  which  Christ  has  fixed  upon  all  who  are  chosen  in  Him ; 
they  come  to  Ilim  ;  and  He  adds  the  assurance,  "  Him  tliat  com- 
eth  to  Me  (the  Greek  is  more  encouraging  than  the  English; 
'■'•Ilim  who  is  coming  " — Him  who  is  on  his  way  to  me),  I  will 
in  no  wise  cast  out."  That  is  to  say,  if  you  ever  come  to  Christ, 
you  are  secure  in  His  hands ;  for  your  coming  only  once  proves 
that  you  are  among  the  number  given  to  Him,  and  He  says  : 
"  Of  all  those  that  Thou  hast  given  me  I  have  lost  noneP  f  Mark 

•t.  e..  If  you  want  to  "make  your  calling  and  election  sure "(2  Peter  i. 
10).    On  this  passage  Alford  makes  the  following  comment : 

"  Both  calling  and  election,  in  as  far  as  we  look  on  tliem  from  the  lower 
side,  not  able  to  penetrate  into  the  counsels  of  God,  are  insecure  unless  estab- 
lished by  holiness  of  life.  In  Ilis  foreknowledge  and  purpose  there  is  no  in- 
security, no  uncertainty  ;  but  in  our  vision  and  apprehension  of  them  as  they 
exist  in  and  for  us,  much,  until  they  are  made  secure  in  the  way  here  pointed 
out;  for  doing  these  things,  'if  ye  do  these  things,  ye  shall  never  fall 
(stumble).'"  It  is  not  to  the  real  security  of  the  elect  that  Peter  has  refer- 
ence, but  to  their  own  assurance  of  security. 

t  "None  of  them  is  lost,  but  the  son  of  perdition/'  (John  xvii.  12).    The 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  35 

the  form  of  statement.  He  does  not  say,  Ifone  are  lost,  though 
this  is  true,  and  He  does  say  this  in  another  place ;  but,  "  /  have 
lost  none."  As  if  He  had  said  :  "  Their  being  kept  in  my  hands 
is  my  work  now,  after  they  come  to  me.  I  hold  them  safe  in  my 
Almighty  grasp.  Mine  they  are,  I  hold  them  fast,  and  no  man 
is  able  to  pluck  them  out  of  my  hands."  We  may  without  irrev- 
erence fancy  the  great  Redeemer  standing  with  the  Book  of  Life 
in  His  hands,  in  which  the  names  of  those  given  Him  have  been 
written  ;  and,  as  one  after  another  emerges  from  the  mass  of  un- 
believers and  professes  faith  in  Him,  we  may  imagine  Him,  as  it 
were,  checking  off  their  names,  and  to  the  designation  "  elect  of 
God,"  adding  His  "  own  new  name,"  "  sa/oed  and  redeemed  hy  the 
Mood  of  my  everlasting  covenant."  So  that  the  record  will  now 
stand,  not  only  "  elect  of  God,"  but  '''•justified  hy  faith,"  "  to 
whom  there  is  now  no  condem/nation." 

Y.  Now  you  are  prepared  to  see  how  this  doctrine  is  adapted 
and  intended  by  God  to  console  His  people  in  their  hours  of 
spiritual  darkness  and  despondency ;  how  in  the  language  of  the 
Episcopal  symbol,  which  I  have  quoted,  it  is  "  full  of  sweet, 

mistake  which  Arminians  make  in  regard  to  this  passage  consists  in  suppos- 
ing that  this  part  of  the  verse  contains  an  exception  to  what  is  declared  in  the 
words  coming  immediately  before.  A  reference  to  the  original  will  at  once 
show  their  error.  If  "  but "  meant  except,  the  Greek  would  read  plen  tou 
Jiuiou,  instead  of  "  ei  me  ho  huios." 

Compare  with  this  passage  Luke  iv.  25  :  "  Many  widows  were  in  Israel  in 
the  days  of  Elias,  but  unto  none  of  them  was  Elias  sent  save  unto  Sarepta,  a 
city  of  Sidon,  unto  a  woman  that  was  a  widow."  Again,  verse  27  :  "  Many 
lepers  were  in  Israel  in  the  time  of  Eliseus,  the  prophet ;  and  none  of  them 
was  cleansed  saving  Naaman  the  Syrian."  Again,  Revelation  xxi.  27 : 
"  There  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it  anything  that  defileth,  neither  whatso- 
ever worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie  ;  but  they  which  are  written  in  the 
Lamb's  book  of  Life." 

In  each  of  these  texts,  the  latter  clause  is  not  an  exception  to  what  is 
asserted  in  the  former,  but  asserts  a  different  fact.  The  following  is  plainly 
their  meaning  :  "  Many  widows  were  in  Israel  in  the  daj'^s  of  Elias,  but  unto 
none  of  them  was  Elias  sent ;  but  (he  was  sent)  to  Sarepta,  a  city  of  Sidon, 
unto  a  woman  that  was  a  widow."  "  Many  lepers  were  in  Israel  in  the  time 
of  Eliseus,  the  prophet ;  and  none  of  them  was  cleansed,  but  Naaman  the 
Syrian  "  (was  cleansed).  "  There  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it  anything  that 
defileth,  etc.,  but  they  (shall  enter  in)  which  are  written  in  the  Lamb's  book 
of  Life." 


36  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

pleasant,  and  unspeakable  comfort  to  godly  persons."  For  it  is 
often  the  case  that  the  true  believer  walks  in  great  darkness. 
Sometimes  such  is  the  state  of  his  health  that  he  is  overwhelmed 
with  religious  despondency ;  or  sometimes  he  is  surprised  into 
sin  by  Satan's  getting  the  advantage  of  him  ;  and,  judging  of  his 
state  of  grace  by  his  own  feelings,  he  fears  that  he  is  no  child  of 
God.  "Well,  he  can  look  back  and  remember  that  once  in  his  life 
he  did  really  and  truly  come  to  Christ.  He  can  have  no  doubt 
about  that  fact  in  his  ex])erience ;  he  knows  as  well  as  he  can 
know  anything  that  once  he  did  have  real  communion  with  his 
Redeemer.  But  now  all  is  changed.  He  walks  in  darkness  and 
Bees  no  light.  At  such  a  time  in  his  experience  is  it  not  a 
blessed  thing  to  know  that,  although  his  feelings  have  changed,  so 
that  he  has  no  sensible  experience  of  divine  love,  Christ's  love  to 
him  is  unchangeable  ?  to  know  that,  having  once  really  come  to 
Christ,  he  is  surely  among  the  number  whom  He  will  never  cast 
out  ?  that  "  having  loved  His  own  which  were  in  the  world  He 
loves  them  unto  the  end  "  ?  to  be  persuaded  that  "  neither  death, 
nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things 
present,  nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  him  from "  Christ's  love  for 
him  ?  This  is  the  triumphant  reply  which  he  can  make  to  Satan 
when  he  would  tempt  him  to  despair.  This  is  the  rejoinder  he 
can  make  to  his  own  accusing  conscience.  With  the  assurance 
that  no  one  can  "  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect "  he 
can  hurl  defiance  at  hell  and  devils  and  all  his  accusers.  God 
has  justified  him,  and  He  who  alone  has  the  right  to  condemn 
him  has  died  for  him,  and  is  at  the  right  hand  of  God  making 
present  intercession  for  him. 

It  is  said  by  some  that  the  preaching  of  this  doctrine  will  en- 
courage men  to  sin,  and  lead  to  licentiousness.  To  this  I  have 
two  answers  to  give,  either  of  which  by  itself  ought  to  be  suffi- 
cient. 

First :  Christ  was  not  afraid  of  this  result  when  He  taught 
this  doctrine. 

Second:  I  appeal  to  history.  Do  the  men  and  the  churches 
that  hold  this  doctrine  exhibit  any  laxity  in  their  lives  i     "Was 


GIVEN  TO  CHRIST.  37 

Paul  a  licentious,  careless  Christian  ?  was  Luther  ?  was  Calvin  ? 
was  the  saintly  Toplady,  who  wrote  the  hymn, "  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft 
for  me  "  ?  was  John  Knox  ?  or  Bunyan  ?  or  Chalmers  ?  or  Hall  ? 
Or  the  men  who  heard  their  preaching  and  believed  their  doc- 
trines— were  they  men  who  continued  in  sin  that  grace  might 
abound  ?  Is  Calvinistic  Scotland — where  the  covenant  of  grace 
and  the  eternal  election  of  God's  people  are  the  key-notes  to  all 
the  theology  they  learn  and  the  preaching  they  hear — is  Calvin- 
istio  Scotland  inhabited  by  a  people  who  are  distinguished  by 
laxity  of  morals  and  looseness  of  life  ?  Oh,  no !  It  is  too  late 
in  the  history  of  the  world  to  say  that  this  doctrine  leads  to  licen- 
tiousness ;  for  wherever  it  has  been  enshrined  in  the  heart  of  a 
people's  piety,  there  you  find  the  most  moral,  grave  and  pious 
people  on  earth.  Why,  what  is  it  that  has  impressed  upon  the 
people  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia  characteristics,  which  make 
them  a  people  peculiar  for  their  hardy  virtues,  their  indomitable 
courage,  their  purity  of  morals,  their  integrity  of  character? 
How  are  we  to  account  for  this  homogeneousness  in  virtue  f 
Partly  by  the  fact  that  this  valley  was  peopled  so  generally  by  a 
race  of  men  who  hold  in  its  entireness  the  great  and  impregnable 
system  of  doctrine,  for  which  their  ancestors,  the  "  Men  of  the 
Covenant,"  shed  their  blood  at  BothweU  Bridge.  Were  the  men 
with  whom  Stonewall  Jackson  *  prayed  before  going  into  battle, 
the  men  of  whom  Jackson  was  the  type  and  leader,  the  "  patient 
infantry,"  behind  whom  Bee  commanded  his  fleeing  battalions  to 
rally — were  they  men  of  dissolute  or  immoral  lives  ?  "  Men  do 
not  gather  grapes  of  thorns,  or  figs  of  thistles."  My  brethren, 
when  these  great  doctrines  shall  lose  their  hold  on  the  heart  of 
the  Presbyterian  people  of  this  country,  you  may  write  "  Icha- 
bod  "  on  their  banners,  for  their  glory  will  have  departed. 

But  this  doctrine  is  not  only  a  source  of  great  peace  and  com- 
fort to  the  believer  in  his  hours  of  spiritual  darkness  and  deser- 
tion ;  it  is  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  life.  For  it  is  a  part  of 
the  doctrine  that  "all  things  work  together  for  the  good  of 
those"  who  are  the  elect  of  God.     It  banishes  the  word  calamity 

*  This  sermon  was  preached  to  the  church  in  Lexington,  Virginia,  in  which 
Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  an  elder. 


38  GIVEN  TO  CHRIST. 

from  their  vocabulary.  Notliing  can  be  to  them  a  disaster.  The 
fire,  the  storm,  the  earthquake,  the  pestilence,  and  the  famine ; 
war,  poverty,  sickness,  and  death ;  the  loss  of  friends,  the  de- 
struction of  property,  although  to  the  eye  of  sense  they  may 
seem  evils,  can  be  to  them  productive  only  of  good.  "All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who 
are  the  called  according  to  His  purpose."  Nothing  can  really  harm 
them.  All  holy  angels  are  commissioned  to  be  their  ministering 
spirits :  all  devils  are  commanded,  "  Touch  not  mine  anointed  and 
do  them  no  harm."  All  things  are  theirs ;  the  world,  life,  death, 
things  present  and  things  to  come ;  all  are  theirs,  because  they  are 
Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's.  Do  you  not  see  that  the  man  who 
holds  this  truth  in  his  heart  is  really  superior  to  all  the  ills  of 
life  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  disturb  the  peace  of  that  man  who 
knows  upon  the  authority  of  God  that  all  the  events  of  his  life 
are  ordered  for  his  good,  and  that  he  himself  is  safe  in  the  arms 
of  Jesus  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  make  that  man  unhappy  who 
persists  in  construing  every  dispensation  of  Providence  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  divine  favor  ?  How  can  you  ruffle  the  repose  of  a 
man  whose  faith  is  a  talisman  by  which  he  transmutes  everything 
into  a  blessing  bestowed  by  paternal  love  ?  Oh !  whatever  else  you 
relinquish,  never  give  up  your  faith  in  this  great  doctrine  which 
you  receive  direct  from  the  Bible,  and  which  your  ancestors 
cherished  with  passionate  devotion.  Think  of  the  loving-kind- 
ness of  your  God  now  in  the  midst  of  His  temple.  "  Walk  about 
Zion,  and  go  round  about  her,  tell  the  towers  thereof.  Mark  ye 
well  her  bulwarks  ;  consider  her  palaces ;  that  ye  may  tell  it  to 
the  generation  following.  For  this  God  is  our  God  forever  and 
ever :  He  will  be  our  guide  even  unto  death." 


IL 

GOD'S  SOYEREIGNTT. 

"  The  Lord  reigneth  ;  let  the  earth  rejoice."— Ps.  xcvii.  1. 
"The  Lord  reigneth ;  let  the  people  tremble."— Ps.  xcix.  1. 

These  two  texts  teach  the  same  doctrine ;  but  from  the  doc- 
trine two  opposite  lessons  are  derived, — a  fact  which  illustrates  the 
principle  that  the  same  truth  when  looked  at  from  different 
points  of  view,  is  adapted  to  produce  very  different  effects  in  the 
mind  of  the  beholder. 

The  doctrine  of  these  texts  is  the  Sovereignty  of  God.  In  view 
of  this  Sovereignty  the  earth  is  called  to  rejoice  and  to  fear. 

"  The  Lord  reigneth ;  let  the  earth  rejoice  ";  "  let  the  people 
tremble." 

I  shall  first  explain  the  doctrine,  and  then  show  why  it  may  be 
the  occasion  of  joy  and  of  fear. 

"  The  Lord  reigneth  "  is  an  ascription  of  unlimited  dominion 
to  Jehovah.  If  there  were  one  spot  in  the  vast  universe  which 
is  free  from  His  control ;  if  there  were  but  one  atom  floating  in 
the  far-off  realms  of  space  which  is  not  pervaded  by  His  presence 
and  moved  by  His  finger,  it  would  be  impossible  to  say  with 
truth,  "  The  Lord  reigneth."  This  doctrine  of  absolute  and  uni- 
versal dominion  of  God  is  affirmed  more  explicitly  in  other  pas- 
sages, which  entering  into  minuter  detail  describe  the  empire  of 
God  as  extending  through  every  portion  of  the  universe. 

I.  What  is  the  nature  of  this  dominion  ?  Is  it  simply  a  physical 
control  ?  That  is,  does  God,  in  the  simple  exercise  of  His  omnip- 
otence, work  His  will  only  in  things  He  has  made  ?  Is  it  gen. 
eral,  or  is  it  also  special  ?     Does  it  extend  to  thoughts  as  well  as 

(39;     . 


40  GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY. 

to  things  ?  Does  it  embrace  men  and  angels,  as  well  as  worlds 
and  sidereal  systems  ?  Is  it  a  dominion  of  right  only,  or  is  it  also 
a  dominion  of  power  ?  That  is,  has  God  only  a  moral  right  to 
govern  His  universe?  or  does  He  invariably  secure  the  accom- 
phshment  of  His  will  ? 

When  all  these  questions  come  to  be  answered  by  different 
schools  of  theology,  you  will  find  some  disposed  to  deny  some  of 
the  logical  consequences  of  the  general  doctrine  that  the  Lord 
reigneth. 

Without  mentioning  any  of  the  erroneous  views  which  men 
have  advocated  in  reply  to  these  and  similar  questions,  I  proceed 
to  unfold  the  true  Scriptm-al  doctrine  in  regard  to  the  Sovereign- 
ty of  God. 

Two  elements  are  contained  in  the  Sovereignty  of  God :  un- 
limited ])ower  and  absolute  authority. 

The  power  of  God  is  called  His  omnij)otence — His  strength  to 
accomplish  any  of  His  purposes.  His  sovereignty  includes  not 
only  this,  but  also  Plis  moral  right  to  exercise  His  power.  The 
first  is,  so  to  speak.  His  physical  power ;  the  second  is  His  moral 
power  or  authority.  The  distinction  is  intelligible,  because 
it  is  one  constantly  recognized  in  human  relationships  between 
the  governor  and  the  governed.  Now,  as  it  is  essential  to  the 
stability  of  every  human  government  that  power  and  authority 
shall  be  vested  in  the  same  person  in  order  to  constitute  him  as  a 
sovereign ;  so  we  must  concede  to  God  infinite  power  and  abso- 
lute moral  right,  in  order  to  conceive  of  Him  as  the  sovereign  of 
the  universe.  If  power  without  right  rules  over  a  kingdom,  we 
call  it  usurpation.  If  legitimate  authority  without  power  to  en- 
force its  claims  undertakes  to  rule  a  kingdom,  anarchy  must  fol- 
low. In  the  dominion  of  God,  in  which  there  can  be  neither 
usurpation  nor  anarchy,  He  sits  sovereign  in  virtue  of  infinite 
power  and  absolute  authority  concentred  in  Him. 

A  third  element  in  the  Sovereignty  of  God  is  evolved  in 
answer  to  the  question,  "  According  to  what  law  does  God  exer- 
cise His  power  and  authority?"  If  God  is  controlled  in  the 
exercise  of  His  power  by  any  considerations  that  lie  outside  of 
Himself,  the  Psalmist  could  never  have  said  :  "  The  Lord  reign- 


GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY.  41 

etb."  Kow  the  Apostle  Paul  in  so  many  words  affirms  that  God 
works  "  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  His  own  will ";  i.  e.,  that 
He  is  self-determined. 

More  specifically,  the  ioo7'h  of  creation  is  ascribed  to  His  sov- 
ereign pleasure.  "  Thou  hast  created  all  things,  and  for  Thy 
pleasm-e  they  are  and  were  created."  "The  Lord  made  all 
things  for  Himself."  So  also  the  work  of  redemption  and  the 
publication  of  the  Gospel  into  the  world,  are  ascribed  to  the  same 
motive ;  as  the  Apostle  tells  us  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians : 
"  Having  predestinated  us  unto  the  adoption  of  children  by  Jesus 
Christ  according  to  the  good  pleasure  of  His  will ";  "  having  made 
known  unto  us  the  mystery  of  His  will,  according  to  His  good 
pleasure  which  He  purposed  in  Himself." 

He  created  the  world  just  because  He  chose  to  create  it ;  He 
preserves  it  just  because  He  chooses  to  preserve  it ;  and  He  re- 
deems His  people  just  because  He  chooses  to  redeem  them.  "  For 
of  Him,  and  by  Him,  and  through  Him  are  all  things." 

The  Sovereignty  of  God,  then,  consists  in  His  infinite  power 
and  right  to  execute  a  will  determined  solely  by  His  good 
pleasure. 

II.  "Who  and  what  are  the  subjects  of  God's  dominion  ?  The 
Scriptures  say  "  all  things."  Does  this  mean  only  the  material 
universe,  or  does  it  include  rational  creatures  ?  The  Scriptures 
are  full  of  assertions  of  God's  control  as  reaching  to  all  the 
creatures  He  has  made.  If  this  is  so,  of  course  His  dominion 
extends  over  the  whole  race  of  men,  over  all  angels  and  over  all 
worlds. 

]^ow,  while  it  is  easy  enough  to  believe  that  all  physical  nature 
is  under  His  supreme  control,  so  that  He  orders  the  movements 
of  every  atom  and  the  revolution  of  every  orb,  some  minds  find 
it  very  hard  to  understand  His  sovereignty  in  reference  to  man. 
The  difficulty  may  be  stated  thus.  Inanimate  nature  is  pass- 
ive, incapable  of  resisting  the  plastic  hand  of  its  maker.  But  in 
creating  man,  God  made  a  being  endowed  with  a  free  will  of  his 
own ;  and  when  this  free  being  fell  from  his  first  estate,  in  which 
his  will  was  always  coincident  with  the  Divine  mil,  he,  retaining 


42  GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY. 

his  freedom  of  -will,  instead  of  delighting  to  do  the  will  of  God, 
now  deUghts  in  frustrating  it  and  refusing  to  obey  it.  Thus  it 
would  seem  that  by  endowing  man  with  free  agency,  God  has 
conferred  upon  the  creature  the  power  of  limiting  His  absolute 
sovereignty — first,  by  doing  what  is  contrary  to  His  will ;  and 
secondly,  by  refusing  to  do  what  He  enjoins.  If  it  is  true  that 
men  in  the  exercise  of  their  free  agency  can  frustrate  the  Divine 
will,  then  whatever  may  be  God's  aid/ioi'ity,  He  cannot  secure 
the  accomplishment  of  all  His  will.  He  has  made  a  machine 
that  has  gotten  away  from  Him  so  that  He  cannot  control  it. 

Now,  although  this  is  a  very  difiicult  problem,  one  that  has 
never  been  solved,  I  ask  your  attention  to  the  following  consider- 
ations, which,  although  they  do  not  solve  the  problem,  may  lead 
you  to  believe  the  doctrine  of  God's  absolute  sovereignty  over 
the  free  wills  of  His  creatures. 

1.  If  you  deny  this  doctrine,  you  are  compelled  to  deny  the 
explicit  statements  of  God's  Word.  "  He  turneth  the  king's  heart 
as  the  rivers  of  water  are  turned."  "  It  is  God  that  worketh  in 
you,  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  own  good  pleasiu-e." 

2.  To  deny  the  free  agency  of  man  is  equally  opposed  to 
Scripture  and  to  the  consciousness  of  the  whole  human  race.  No 
amount  of  argmnent  to  the  contrary  could  convince  any  human 
being  that  in  all  his  conduct  he  does  not  act  freely. 

3.  But  why  should  men  believe  the  latter  proposition  and 
reject  the  former  ?  When  both  truths  are  taught  in  the  Word 
of  God,  and  stand  on  the  same  authority,  why  not  receive  them 
both  as  true  ? 

The  doubter  is  ready  with  the  answer.  He  cannot  see  how 
these  propositions  can  be  made  to  agree  with  each  other. 

I  have  somewhere  read  that  among  the  many  wonderful  en- 
dowments of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  he  possessed  an  extraordinary 
power  of  vision,  so  that  he  could  discern  objects  that  were  visible 
to  ordinary  eyes  only  with  the  aid  of  the  telescope.  On  one 
occasion,  while  discussing  with  his  marshals  the  plan  of  a  cam- 
paign from  which  he  expected  most  brilliant  results,  they  con- 
fessed tlicmselvcs  unable  to  see  how  his  plans  could  be  executed. 
He  stepped  to  the  window,  and  pointing  to  the  planet  Jupiter,  he 


GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY.  43 

said,  "  Do  you  see  the  four  satellites  of  that  planet  ?  "  "  No," 
they  replied.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  I  see  them,"  Thus  it  is  with 
us  short-sighted  men.  God  reveals  truths  in  His  Word  which 
we  find  it  hard  to  reconcile;  and  in  opposition  to  the  clearest 
teachings  of  His  Word,  we  dare  to  doubt,  because  we,  the  pigmy 
insects  of  a  moment,  cannot  see  how  they  can  be  made  to  har- 
monize. It  may  be  our  duty  to  believe  some  things  that  we  can- 
not see.  Since  God  has  said  so,  it  is  one's  duty  to  believe  that 
He  is  a  Sovereign  and  man  a  free  agent,  although  we  cannot  see 
how  these  things  consist  with  each  other.  His  thoughts  are  not 
as  our  thoughts.  As  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so 
are  His  thoughts  higher  than  our  thoughts. 

III.  The  Sovereignty  of  God  being  clearly  taught  in  Scripture, 
the  question  is  pertinent.  How  does  God  manifest  or  exhibit  it  ? 
I  answer — 

1.  By  the  giving  of  a  Law,  God  claims  to  be  a  great  king : 
and  by  giving  the  law  to  all  His  creatures  without  any  exception, 
He  proclaims  Himself  a  universal  King — King  of  kings. 

2.  The  arbitrary  character  of  some  of  God's  laws  is  a  claim  of 
sovereign  authority.  Some  of  God's  laws  are  founded  in  the 
nature  of  things ;  such,  for  example,  as  the  obligation  to  love 
Him  and  to  worship  Him,  and  to  love  our  fellow-men  and  to  do 
them  no  harm  ;  but  there  are  others  which  have  no  such  natural 
congruity,  and  are  founded  on  no  other  ground  than  that  so  He 
wills  it.  The  prohibition  to  Adam  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  a  certain 
tree,  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  the  Jewish  ceremonial  law,  were 
arbitrary  in  their  nature,  and  were  striking  exhibitions  of  God's 
sovereignty. 

3.  The  abrogation  of  some  of  the  laws  He  has  given  ;  e.  g., 
the  revoking  of  the  ceremonial  law,  or  the  change  in  the  method 
of  His  dealing  with  mankind  by  the  substitution  of  the  Covenant 
of  Grace  for  the  Covenant  of  Works,  is  one  of  the  highest  dis- 
plays of  His  Sovereignty. 

4.  God  manifests  His  Sovereignty  by  punishing  every  trans- 
gression of  His  law.  In  human  governments  some  criminals 
escape  punishment.     This  is  a  sign  of  a  weak  government.     But 


44  GOD 'S  SO  VEREIGNTY. 

in  the  Divine  government  all  sin  is  pimisbed  ;  and  this  proves  it 
to  be  infinite  and  absolnte. 

5.  God  manifests  His  Sovereignty  in  His  Providential  govern- 
ment of  men.  AVhy  does  He  make  one  rich  and  another  poor  ; 
one  robust,  another  invalid  ;  one  white,  another  black  ;  one  free 
and  another  a  slave ;  one  vn&e.  and  another  foolish ;  one  an  Amer- 
ican and  another  a  Hottentot  ?  Why  does  He  give  you  the  Gos- 
pel and  withhold  it  from  the  Bushmen  1  Are  you  any  better  by 
nature  than  the  uncivilized  heathen  ?  "Why  then  ?  Simply  be- 
cause He  is  a  Sovereign  and  does  whatsoever  He  chooses.  All 
the  inequalities  among  men  and  among  nations,  all  calamities  and 
all  prospo-ity,  all  promotion  and  all  dishonor,  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  human  life,  must  be  referred  to  the  "  good  pleasure  "  of  God, 
and  are  exhibitions  of  His  Sovereignty. 

6.  The  Sovereignty  of  God  was  most  conspicuously  displayed  in 
His  sending  His  Son  into  the  world  for  the  salvation  of  sinners. 
Kobody  will  dare  affirm  that  God  was  compelled  to  do  this.  He 
might,  if  He  had  chosen,  have  left  us  to  perish  in  om*  sins.  Or 
if  we  suppose  that  something  in  the  character  of  God  or  in  the 
claims  of  the  Divine  glory  made  it  necessary  for  Him  to  make 
Bome  illustrious  display  to  the  intelligent  universe  of  His  mercy, 
•why  did  He  select  fallen  men  instead  of  fallen  angels  as  the 
objects  of  His  mercy  ?  Herein  was  a  striking  exhibition  of  His 
sovereign  good  pleasure. 

T.  The  Sovereignty  of  God  is  manifested  in  the  fact  that  only 
some  men  are  chosen  to  be  saved  in  Christ,  while  others  are  suf- 
fered to  perish.  This  predestination  of  some  men  to  eternal  life 
is  the  most  distinguished  manifestation  of  the  Sovereignty  of 
God.  Just  here  I  fancy  I  hear  an  objector  lift  up  his  voice  in 
protest.  He  says,  "  I  do  not  deny  the  general  doctrine  of  God's 
Sovereignty ;  but  I  must  dissent  from  this  particular  aspect  in 
which  you  now  present  it."  In  short,  he  holds  to  God's  Sover- 
eignty in  everything  but  the  matter  of  man's  salvation.  He  can- 
not see  how  sovereignty  in  election  can  be  reconciled  with  God's 
impartiality.  Neither  do  we.  I  agree  with  him  at  once.  I  admit 
that  for  God  to  choose  from  among  guilty  beings,  all  equally  ill- 
deserving,  some  to  everlasting  life,  while  He  passes  others  by,  is  a 


GOD 'S  SO  VEREIGNTY.  45 

striking  exhibition  of  partiality ;  and  I  claim  for  God,  as  sov- 
ereign, the  right  to  l)e  partial.  "  But,"  says  the  objector,  con- 
sulting the  dictionary,  "  partiality  is  a  preference  springing  from 
the  will  and  affections  rather  than  from  a  sense  oi  justice.''^  Pre- 
,  cisely  so.  The  election  of  God's  people  is  an  act  of  preference 
springing  from  His  own  will  and  from  His  own  good  pleasm'e, 
without  any  reference  to  the  claims  of  justice,  which  concludes 
all  alike  under  condemnation.  "  But  then,"  says  the  objector, 
"  this  discrimination  is  unjust."  To  this  I  reply,  It  would  be 
unjust  in  a  judge,  but  not  in  a  sovereign.  A  judge  could  not 
condemn  one  criminal  while  he  suffered  another  equally  guilty  to 
escape.  But  this  very  thing  a  sovereign  may  do,  and  does,  with- 
out being  called  in  question.  And  so  may  God,  the  great  Sover- 
eign, choose  some  whom  He  intends  to  save,  while  He  leaves 
others  to  their  just  condemnation.  "  But  then,"  says  the  ob- 
jector, "  the  ends  of  justice  are  defeated  if  only  one  offender 
goes  free."  True,  the  ends  of  justice  would  be  defeated  if  any 
solitary  transgression  of  the  law  of  God  goes  unpunished.  How, 
then,  does  God  vindicate  His  justice,  while  He  thus  exercises 
His  sovereignty  ?  I  answer.  By  providing  an  atonement,  a  sacri- 
fice, a  fulfiller  of  the  law,  both  as  to  its  precepts  and  penalty,  to 
stand  in  place  of  His  elect  ones,  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord.  When  God  as  Sovereign  elected  some  unto  life.  He 
did  not  forget  His  character  as  judge ;  the  solemn  demands  of 
justice  were  too  sacred  for  even  Him,  the  Sovereign,  to  set  the 
law  aside,  (as  is  done  in  every  act  of  executive  clemency  among 
men) ;  He  still  required  that  the  penalty  of  His  law  should  be 
paid,  if  not  by  the  guilty  themselves,  in  the  person  of  His  own 
dear  Son.  And  thus  the  Sovereignty  of  God  is  further  illustrated 
by  His  setting  aside  the  old  covenant  of  works,  the  terms  of 
which  were,  "  Do  this  and  live,"  and  putting  in  its  stead  the  cov- 
enant of  grace,  the  terms  of  which  are,  "  Believe  on  Christ  and 
live." 

Thus,  you  see,  God,  as  Sovereign,  chooses  from  among  guilty 
men  some  whom  He  has  determined  to  save ;  as  Sovereign, 
changes  the  covenant  of  works  for  a  covenant  of  grace,  (by  which 
arrangement  alone  the  salvation  of  any  can  be  made  possible),  in 


46  GOD 'S  SO  VEREIGNTY. 

order  that  He  may  save  His  elect  ones :  as  Sovereign,  accepts  the 
work  of  Christ  in  their  behalf  in  place  of  their  obedience  and 
punishment;   and  then,  as  Judffe,  justifies  all  who  believe   in 
Jesus ;— thus  showing  to  all  men  and  all  angels  and  all  devils  how 
God  the  Judge  may  be  just  and  yet  a  justifier  of  the  ungodly. 
And  now, "  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ? " 
God  has  justified  them.  "  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ? "    But  the 
objector  answers,  "  There  is  no  dispute  between  us  as  to  the  ground 
of  sinners'  justification  ;  but  we  differ  as  to  the  ground  of  God's 
election  of  the  sinner  to  justification."     The  objector  is  bound  to 
admit  that  the  Scriptures  speak  of  an  election  ;  but  he  says  God 
elects  men  because  He  foresees  that  some  will  believe  on  Christ 
and  become  holy,  while  others  will  reject  Christ  and  remain  im- 
penitent.    This  is  a  very  plausible  and  very  intelhgible  explana- 
tion of  the  matter  ;  but  it  is  liable  to  the  fatal  objection  that  there 
is  not  one  line  of  Scripture  to  support  it,  and  numberless  Scrip- 
tures that  deny  it.     The  Scriptures  have  a  great  deal  to  say  about 
faith  as  the  result  of  election ;  of  holiness  as  the  consequence  of 
election ;  but  never  in  a  single  instance  of  the  relation  as  re- 
versed.    The  same  thing  cannot  be  the  cause  and  the  effect  of 
some  other  thing.     Faith  and  holiness  cannot  be  the  foreseen 
cause  of  our  election  by  God  and  the  result  of  that  election.    The 
one  surely  must  precede  the  other.     And  when  the  Scriptures 
say,  "According  as  He  hath  chosen  us  in  Christ  before  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world  in  order  that  we  should  be  holy,"  they  can- 
not mean  that  He  has  chosen  us  because  lie  foresaw  that  we 
would  be  holy.     If  this  was  what  the  Apostle  meant,  why  did  he 
not  say  so?    Why  does  he  everywhere  say  just  the  opposite? 
Why  does  he  say,  "  hath  predestinated  us  that  we  should  be  holy," 
"  that  we  should  be  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,"  "  that 
we  should  be  to  the  praise  of  His  glory"  ?    Why  does  he,  guarding 
against  this  very  error,  say,  "  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should 
boast,"  "  that  the  purpose  of  God  according  to  election  might 
stand,  not  of  works,  but  of  Him  that  calleth  "  ?    What  does  the 
Apostle  mean  when  he  says,  "  Whom  He  did  foreknow.  He  also 
did  predestinate  to  he  conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son "; 
"  Moreover,  whom  He  did  predestinate,  them  He  also  called,  and 


GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY.  47 

whom  He  ca]led,  them  He  also  justified ;  and  whom  He  justified, 
them  He  also  glorified  "  ?  Is  the  daylight  the  cause  of  the  sun  ? 
or  is  the  sun  the  cause  of  daylight  ?  Now  faith  and  holiness  are 
the  result  of  election,  just  as  day  is  the  result  of  the  rising  sun. 
The  objector  now  shifts  his  ground  and  says :  "  But  faith  and 
good  works  are  the  conditions  of  salvation,  and  God  certainly 
saves  some  and  condemns  others,  because  some  beheve  and  others 
do  not."  To  this  I  reply,  True,  but  why  do  some  believe  and 
others  reject  Christ  ?  He  will  reply :  "  Because  God  not  only 
gives  the  means  of  grace,  but  accompanies  them  by  the  efficiency 
of  His  Spirit."  I  press  the  question  :  "  But  why  does  He  give 
the  influences  of  His  Spirit  to  some  and  not  to  all  ? "  He  will 
reply :  "  Because  He  has  decreed  by  grace  to  prepare  men  for 
glory."  But  why  decree  to  prepare  some  and  not  all  ?  And  he 
must  at  last  admit  that  it  is  all  because  of  God's  good  pleasure ; 
and  if  at  last  driven  to  the  wall,  he  is  still  ready  to  rebel  against 
the  sovereignty  of  God,  I  can  go  no  farther  in  argument,  but 
must  adopt  the  language  of  Paul  in  his  argument  with  this  very 
objector  and  say  :  "  Nay,  but  oh  !  man,  who  art  thou  that  repli- 
est  against  God?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  him  that 
formed  it,  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus  ?  Hath  not  the  potter 
power  over  the  clay,  of  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto 
honor,  and  another  unto  dishonor  ? "  Oh  !  my  hearer !  it  is  only 
in  moments  of  rebellion  against  God  that  men  do  thus  reply 
against  Him.  We  know  with  the  certainty  of  intuition  that  we 
are  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter,  and  when  we  ask,  Why 
was  I  made  the  subject  of  converting  grace?  Why  did  the 
Spirit  strive  with  me  and  not  with  them  ?  your  hearts  will  ac- 
knowledge the  Sovereignty  of  God,  and  you  will  say :  "  Because 
He  hath  mercy  on  whom  He  will  have  mercy,  and  whom  He  will 
He  hardeneth."  And  when  you  sit  at  the  table  of  the  Lord,  you 
must  sometimes  inquire : 

"  Lord,  why  am  I  a  guest  ? 
Why  was  I  made  to  hear  Thy  voice 
And  enter  while  there's  room, 
While  thousands  make  a  wretched  choice, 
And  rather  starve  than  come  ? " 

And  your  hearts  must  respond ; 


48  GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY. 

"  'Twas  the  same  love  that  spread  the  feast 
That  sweetly  forced  us  in  ; 
Else  we  had  still  refused  to  taste, 
And  perished  La  our  sin." 

Tes !  it  is  all  of  sovereign  grace.  "  It  is  not  of  him  that  will- 
eth  nor  of  him  that  runneth ;  but  of  God  that  showeth  merej." 
And  therefore  in  the  salvation  of  men,  God  makes  the  most 
signal  display  of  His  Sovereignty. 

TV.  I  have  left  but  little  time  for  showing  why  the  Sovereignty 
of  God  should  be  the  occasion  of  rejoicing  to  His  people  and  of 
trembling  to  His  enemies.  In  conclusion  I  remark  that  God's 
Sovereignty  should  make  us  rejoice,  because  it  is  exercised  in  per- 
fect harmony  with  infinite  goodness,  wisdom,  and  love.  Amidst 
our  perplexities,  cares,  sorrows,  disappointments,  and  bereave- 
ments, how  sustaining,  how  exhilarating  the  reflection  that  the 
Lord  reigneth !  In  the  dark  days  of  the  Keformation,  Luther 
stayed  his  soul  on  this  great  doctrine.  He  said :  "  TJie  Lord 
reigneth,  and  I  know  He  loves  His  Church  better  than  I  love  it ; 
and  why  should  I  fear  that  He  will  not  take  care  of  it  1  All  the 
dispensations  of  God's  providence  and  grace  are  only  so  many 
straightforward  steps  to  the  accomplishment  of  good  for  us. 
Like  the  wheels  and  bands  in  a  great  machine,  some  of  which  are 
turning  one  way,  some  another ;  some  going  up  and  some  going 
down,  yet  all  contributing  to  produce  the  perfect  result ;  so  all 
things  in  the  great  machinery  of  Providence  are  co-operating  to 
accomplish  God's  purposes  of  good  to  His  people.  What  a 
source  of  rejoicing  to  know  that  He  reigns  over  all ! " 

Some  of  you  do  rejoice  that  you  have  such  a  Sovereign.  But 
I  fear  there  are  some  here  who  are  saying,  I  do  not  like  this  doc- 
trine. It  presents  God  in  such  a  terrible  aspect  to  me,  that  in- 
stead of  winning  my  love,  it  makes  me  hate  God.  Well,  you 
know  the  Apostle  says :  "  The  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against 
God."  If  this  is  the  eflFect  of  the  doctrine  on  your  heart,  it  only 
proves  that  you  have  that  carnal  mind  that  hates  the  God  of  the 
Bible.  If  the  doctrine  of  God's  Sovereignty  is  terrible  to  you, 
don't  you  see  that  this  proves  the  doctrine  true?  for  the  Psalmist 
says:  "The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  people  trembled  "Ah!" 
you  say,  "  we  could  rejoice  in  the  Sovereignty  of  God,  if  we  were 


GOD'S  SOVEREIGNTY.  49 

only  good  ;  but  we  are  wicked ;  and  as  sucli  we  cannot  delight 
in  the  thought  that  we  are  in  the  hands  of  a  sovereign  God." 
"Well,  then,  why  remain  wicked  ?  Why  not  be  good  ?  Why  not 
make  friends  with  this  Almighty  Sovereign  ?  Why  not  lay  hold 
upon  His  strength,  and  be  at  peace  with  Him  ? 

I  appreciate  the  full  force  of  the  reply  which  I  know  is  in 
your  minds.  You  are  saying.  How  can  we  change  our  hearts 
and  love  God,  and  accept  Jesus  Christ  as  our  Saviour,  if  it  is  true, 
as  you  just  now  told  us,  that  God  sovereignly  bestows  the  grace 
of  faith,  and  that  it  is  not  of  him  that  willeth  nor  of  him  that 
runneth,  but  of  God  that  showeth  mercy  ?  Well,  ray  dear  friend, 
I  cannot  help  it;  I  cannot  help  you  out  of  the  terrible  diffi- 
culty, and  it  is  for  this  very  reason  that  you  are  helpless  in  the 
hands  of  a  sovereign  God,  that  you  have  need  to  tremble.  Your 
only  help  is  to  be  found  in  God  himself.  If  you  will  only  bow 
before  His  Sovereignty,  and,  like  the  publican,  cast  yourself  on 
His  mercy.  He  will  graciously  incline  His  ear  to  you  and  grant 
you  His  converting  grace  that  your  soul  may  live.  Shall  I  give 
you  the  words  wherewith  you  may  approach  Him  in  prayer? 
Come  to  Him  with  language  like  this : 

Pass  me  not,  O  gracious  Father, 

Sinful  though  my  heart  may  be ; 
Thou  might'st  curse  me,  but  the  rather 

Let  Thy  mercy  hght  on  me, 
Even  me. 

Pass  me  not,  O  tender  Saviour, 

Let  me  love  and  cling  to  Thee ; 
I  am  longing  for  Thy  favor, 

When  Thou  comest,  call  for  me, 
Even  me. 

Pass  me  not,  O  mighty  Spirit, 

Thou  canst  make  the  blind  to  see ; 
Witnesser  of  Jesus'  merit, 

Speak  the  word  of  power  to  me, 
Even  me. 

Love  of  God,  so  pure  and  changeless, 

Blood  of  God,  so  rich  and  free, 
Grace  of  God,  so  strong  and  boundless, 

Magnify  them  all  in  me, 
Even  me. 


m. 

eegeneratio:n". 

"Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee.  Except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God."— John  iii.  3. 

There  is  a  wonderful  harmony  between  all  the  doctrines  of  a 
sound  system  of  theology.  It  is  no  insignificant  proof  of  the 
truth  of  any  science  that  all  its  doctrines  are  consistent  with  each 
other,  and  cohere  in  one  compact  harmonious  whole.  The 
Scriptures  contain  religious  truths,  which  being  arranged  in  scien- 
tific form,  constitute  what  is  called  a  system  of  theology.  If  any 
one  of  these  great  truths  or  doctrines  is  omitted,  the  whole 
system  falls  to  pieces,  just  as  an  arch  tumbles  down  if  one  of  the 
bricks  is  taken  out. 

The  text  contains  one  of  the  great  truths  which  is  essential  to 
any  correct  theory  of  the  plan  of  redemption, — viz. :  the 
necessity  of  the  "  new  birth."  But  this  doctrine  would  be  utter- 
ly unintelligible  and  incredible  were  it  not  that  we  learn  from 
the  Scriptures  another  doctrine — viz. :  the  depravity  of  the  whole 
human  race.  Deny  this  doctrine,  and  the  doctrine  of  the  neces- 
sity of  regeneration,  or  being  born  again,  is  an  absurdity.  Hence 
those  who  teach  that  infants  are  born  innocent  and  perfect,  and 
fall  into  sin  simply  through  the  force  of  example,  are  perfectly 
consistent  in  teaching  that  the  new  birth  of  which  the  text 
speaks  is  simply  a  reformation  of  life  and  habit.  Those  who 
teach  this  error  hold  that  this  result  is  brought  about  by  "  moral 
suasion  ";  i.  e.^  a  persuading  of  the  sinner  to  abandon  the  error  of 
his  way. 

I  should  despair  of  convincing  any  man  that  he  must  be  born 
again  in  order  to  see  the  kingdom  of  God,  who  is  not  persuaded 
(50) 


REGENERATION.  6t 

of  the  total  depravity  of  human  nature.  I  shall  not  undertake 
to  show  that  this  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Bible.  David  says :  "  Be- 
hold, I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and  in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive 
me."  "  The  wicked  are  estranged  from  the  womb  ;  they  go 
astray  as  soon  as  they  be  born."  The  doctrine  pervades  the 
whole  Bible.  It  is  one  of  the  constructive  ideas  of  inspiration, 
which  are  not  so  much  here,  or  there,  as  everywhere.  It  is  like 
the  blood  in  the  human  body.  Draw  it  out  of  the  system  and  you 
may  as  well  bury  the  system  in  the  grave.  The  doctrine  rever- 
berates from  the  first  chapter  in  Genesis  to  the  last  in  the  Reve- 
lation. Expunge  it,  and  you  may  as  well  vacate  the  office  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  work  of  man's  redemption. 

If  any  holy  being  were  asked,  what  is  the  distinctive  character- 
istic of  man  ?  his  answer  would  be,  "  Sin."  It  is  not  weakness, 
it  is  not  misfortune,  it  is  not  suffering,  it  is  not  death  ;  it  is  sin. 
And  indeed,  if  there  is  one  truth  on  which  the  mind  of  the  whole 
human  race  is  agreed,  it  is  the  fact  of  depravity  and  sin,  and  the 
necessity  of  a  radical  change  in  his  nature  to  fit  man  for  the  pres- 
ence of  God. 

Assuming  as  conceded  the  depravity  of  all  men  without  excep- 
tion, I  desire  now  to  enforce  the  doctrine  of  the  text. 

What  is  regeneration  ?  It  is  a  work  done  in  a  man  by  the 
Spirit  of  God.  It  differs  from  justification  in  this,  that  the  latter 
is  done  oviXjfor  a  man,  and  changes  his  state  in  relation  to  God's 
law.  Regeneration  is  not  a  change  in  relations,  but  a  change  in 
the  man  himself ;  it  gives  him  a  new  character. 

As  the  change  is  in  the  soul,  and  not  in  the  body,  it  is  per- 
fectly clear  that  no  mechanical  operation  performed  on  the  body 
can  produce  this  change.  Many  persons  have  a  vague  idea  that 
in  some  mysterious  way  baptism  can  secure  this  result.  But  our 
Lord  distinctly  teaches  that  a  man  must  be  born  of  "  water  cmd 
the  Spint." 

There  is  one  aspect  of  this  truth  wliich  is  of  great  practical 
value.  Let  me  illustrate  it  by  the  case  of  the  converted  drunk- 
ard. Before  his  conversion  he  was  the  victim  of  two  diseases : 
one  a  corrupt  and  depraved  heart ;  the  other,  a  disordered  bodily 
condition,  brought  about  by  long  intemperate  indulgence.    Now 


52  REGENERATION. 

when  tlie  Spirit  of  God  entered  his  soul  and  changed  his  spiritual 
nature,  this  mighty  work  did  not  cure  his  diseased  body.  He  has 
the  same  insatiable  longings  for  the  intoxicating  bowl  which  he 
had  before  his  conversion.  If  now,  by  the  grace  of  God,  he  has 
the  strength  to  persevere  in  habits  of  sobriety,  his  body  will  in 
the  end  regain  its  healtlif  ul  tone,  and  he  will  become  a  sober 
man.  But  the  cure  of  the  nervous  disorder  is  not  the  direct  work 
of  the  Spirit ;  it  is  the  result  of  his  being  "  strengthened  with  all 
might  by  the  Spirit  in  the  inner  man."  If,  however,  at  any 
time  the  nervous  disorder  should  again  conquer  the  regenerate 
nature,  and  the  man  should  be  overtaken  in  his  old  fault,  this  is 
no  decisive  proof  that  he  is  not  a  true  child  of  God.  I  make 
this  remark  not  to  encourage  any  one  to  dally  with  temptation,  but 
to  encourage  any  who  may  have  fallen  back  into  a  vicious 
habit  from  which  he  once  was  rescued,  and  who  now  fears  that 
God  has  cut  him  off,  to  rise  up  again  and  with  humble  reliance 
on  Divine  grace  to  fight  his  old  enemy. 

Again,  regeneration  does  not  change  the  faculties  or  suscepti 
bilities  of  the  soul.  The  man  loves,  desires,  hopes,  fears,  rejoices, 
grieves,  proposes,  and  wills  just  the  same  as  before  his  change  of 
heart :  but  these  emotions,  passions,  and  purposes  are  now  fixed 
on  new  objects.  Hence,  the  Apostle  says  to  the  Thessalonians ; 
"  The  Lord  direct  your  hearts  into  the  love  of  God."  They  had 
been  worshippers  of  idols  and  they  had  "  turned  to  God  from 
idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God."  The  act  of  worship  was 
the  same,  but  it  was  now  directed  to  God. 

In  reply,  therefore,  to  the  question  :  AVTiat  is  regeneration  ?  I 
Bay  that  it  is  a  real,  mighty,  miraculous  renovation  of  the  soul  by 
the  direct  agency  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  reverses  the  whole 
current  and  bent  of  the  affections,  desires,  and  purposes,  so  that 
the  man  who  experiences  it  may  say,  '  Old  things  have  passed 
away  ;  behold,  all  things  have  become  new." 

The  text  declares  that  without  this  change  no  man  can  see  the 
kingdom  of  God.  There  are  only  two  destinations  in  the  great 
future  which  awaits  you  beyond  the  grave.  Exclusion  from  the 
kingdom  of  God  implies  inclusion  in  the  kingdom  of  Satan.  "  Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 


REGENERATION.  §8 

I  think  the  reason  why  the  f  ulfihnent  of  this  condition  is  indis- 
pensable can  be  made  apparent  to  any  reasonable  mind. 

1.  Admittance  into  heaven  is  an  immediate  introduction  into 
the  presence  of  the  Holy  One,  to  hold  familiar  intercourse  with 
Him,  to  attend  upon  His  court,  and  to  serve  Him  continually. 
To  be  qualified  for  this  near  and  intimate  association  with  Him 
who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity,  the  man  must  be 
not  only  a  pardoned  sinner,  but  must  be  personally  holy  in  char- 
acter, presenting  nothing  offensive  to  the  eye  of  the  divine  holi- 
ness. Hence  David  says,  "  Lord,  who  shall  abide  in  Thy  taber- 
nacle ?  Who  shall  dwell  in  Thy  holy  hill  ?  He  that  hath  clean 
hands  and  a  pure  heart."  "  For  Thou  art  not  a  God  that  hath 
pleasure  in  wickedness  ;  neither  shall  evil  dwell  with  Thee ;  the 
foolish  shall  not  stand  in  Thy  sight."  The  Apostle  says  that 
"  the  carnal  heart,"  that  is,  the  unregenerate  man,  "  is  enmity 
against  God,  and  is  not  subject  to  the  law  of  God,  neither  indeed 
can  be."  Think  of  the  manifest  incongruity  of  the  Divine  Being 
surrounding  His  throne  with  those  who  hate  Him  and  despise 
His  government,  and  you  will  readily  admit  that  "  except  a  man 
be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  "  Holiness 
becometh  Thy  house,  O  Lord,  forever ";  "  and  there  shall  in 
no  wise  enter  into  it  anything  that  defileth,  neither  whatsoever 
worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie." 

2.  But  we  are  forced  to  the  same  conclusion  by  considering 
the  character  of  the  unregenerate  man  and  the  character  of  the 
society  in  heaven.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  peopled  by  perfectly 
holy  beings.  Their  constant  occupations  are  such  as  are  congenial 
to  pure  and  holy  spirits.  An  unregenerate  man  is  not  a  fit  asso- 
ciate for  those  holy  intelligences  that  stand  around  the  throne. 
Let  me  illustrate.  Here  is  a  family  reared  amid  the  kindliest 
influences.  It  is  composed  of  a  father,  who  is  the  type  of  every- 
thing noble,  refined,  and  elevated  ;  a  mother,  the  model  of  all 
that  is  pure  and  beautiful  in  woman  ;  daughters  that  are  lovely 
beyond  their  sex,  just  budding  into  womanhood,  and  sons  who 
have  been  kept  unspotted  from  the  world. 

On  the  other  hand,  here  is  a  base,  corrupt,  unprincipled  liber- 
tine ;  a  man  without  education,  culture,  or  refinement ;  with  low 


54  REGENERATION. 

tastes  and  depraved  appetites.  Now,  why  is  he  excluded  from 
this  family  circle  ?  Manifestly,  because  he  is  not  a  fit  associate 
for  the  elevated  and  good.  Why  does  he  not  desire  or  seek  to 
enter  there  ?  Simply  because  he  has  no  taste  for  the  society  he 
would  meet  within  the  precincts  of  that  Christian  home.  "Why 
would  he  be  miserable  if  compelled  to  enter  that  household  as  an 
inmate,  and  engage  in  the  employments  of  its  members  ?  Simply 
because  he  could  take  no  pleasure  in  the  pursuits  that  engage  the 
refined,  the  elevated,  and  the  good. 

Now  heaven  is  a  holy  place,  and  those  who  dwell  there  delight 
in  hohness.  The  angels  are  "  holy  angels."  Glorified  saints  are 
said  to  be  as  the  angels  of  God  in  heaven.  Is  an  unrenewed,  de- 
praved man  a  fit  associate  for  them  ?  Would  they  not  turn  their 
backs  on  him,  and,  fleeing  from  his  presence,  leave  him  in  the 
solitude  of  his  own  vileness  ? 

These  holy  angels  and  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  are 
constantly  engaged  in  acts  of  adoration,  in  studying  the  perfec- 
tions of  God,  in  the  exercise  and  expression  of  supreme  love  to 
God,  in  the  vocal  utterance  of  His  praises.  How  can  a  man 
whose  heart  is  unholy  engage  in  these  services  ?  If  he  does  not 
delight  to  do  the  will  of  God  here,  will  he  delight  to  do  it  there  ? 
If  he  does  not  take  pleasure  in  the  study  of  God  here,  will  he 
take  any  more  pleasure  in  the  study  of  His  perfections  there  ? 
If  his  language  now  is,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  desire  not  the 
knowledge  of  thy  ways,"  can  such  a  temper  be  fit  for  heaven, 
where  nothing  but  thoughts  of  God  will  fill  the  minds  of  glori- 
fied spirits  ?  Then,  again,  how  can  he  engage  in  the  worship 
which  constitutes  so  large  a  part  of  the  employment  of  saints  and 
angels  ?  What  is  the  angels'  song  ?  "  Holy !  holy !  holy !  Lord 
God  of  Hosts."  Can  the  corrupt,  depraved  man  join  in  this 
chorus?  What  is  the  song  of  the  saints?  " Hallelujah  !  Salva- 
tion, and  glory,  and  honor,  and  power  unto  the  Lord  our  God ! 
Hallelujah !  For  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth."  How 
can  the  heart  that  hates  God  echo  this  hallelujah  ?  The  tongue 
can  never  be  tuned  to  praise  while  the  heart  is  evil.  God  must 
be  glorified  in  us  before  He  can  be  glorified  by  us. 

Don't  you  see  that  the  unrenewed  man  would  be  miserable  in 


REGENERA  TION.  56 

heaven  if  forced  to  enter  there  ?  Is  he  not  unhappy  in  the  so- 
ciety of  the  pure  and  holy  here  on  earth  ?  Why  should  he  be 
happy  in  their  society  hereafter  ?  Is  not  the  occupation  of  the 
pious  a  weariness  to  him  here  ?  Why  should  it  be  any  more 
agreeable  to  him  there  ?  Is  not  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  holy 
rest  an  object  of  aversion  to  him  ?  How  then  will  he  delight  in 
the  eternal  Sabbath  ?  He  would  be  miserable  in  heaven  ;  for 
heaven  consists  in  nearness  to  God  and  in  the  beatific  visions 
of  His  Son.  Could  he  delight  in  nearness  to  God  who  all  his 
hfe  has  lived  without  God,  or  be  happy  in  looking  upon  Jesus 
Christ  who  all  his  life  turned  his  back  on  Christ  ?  No  !  no  !  He 
would  be  wretched  in  heaven.  Chain  him  to  the  foot  of  the 
Eternal  Throne,  and  he  would  cower  beneath  the  gaze  of  the 
Holy  One.  Bind  him  with  fetters  to  the  very  right  hand  of 
Him  in  whose  presence  is  fullness  of  joy  and  pleasures  for  ever- 
more, aud  he  would  shriek  in  agony  and  call  on  rocks  and  moun- 
tains to  fall  on  him  and  hide  him  from  the  face  of  Him  that 
sitteth  on  the  throne.  That  burning  eye  which  looks  on  sin  with 
abhorrence  would  blanch  his  cheek  with  terror ;  that  awful  frown 
would  kindle  hell  in  his  bosom,  and  he  would  pray  to  be  released 
from  imprisonment  in  the  presence  of  a  holy  God,  that  he 
might  flee  from  the  brightness  of  His  glory  as  darkness  flees  be- 
fore the  rising  sun.  "  Yerily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  Except  a 
man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

One  thought  more  and  I  have  done.  Hell  is  a  place  of  misery. 
And  one  of  the  bitterest  drops  in  the  cup  of  woe  is,  that,  while 
the  lost  soul  longs  after  the  enjoyment  of  sensual  delights,  there 
will  be  a  total  privation  of  them.  Heaven  is  the  perfect  grati- 
fication of  holy  tastes  which  have  begun  to  be  cultivated  on  earth. 
Does  the  drunkard  expect  that  heaven  will  afford  him  the  ex- 
citement of  the  intoxicating  cup ;  or  the  libertine  that  it  wiU  be 
a  Mohammedan  paradise ;  or  the  covetous  man  that  it  will  be  a 
place  for  him  to  buy  and  sell  and  get  gain  ?  Certainly  not.  Yet 
they  all  hope  in  some  way  to  be  finally  happy.  But  happiness 
consists  in  the  satisfaction  of  the  desires  and  appetites,  in  the 
gratification  of  the  tastes  and  propensities  of  the  soul.  They 
know  full  well  that  heaven  cannot  gratify  these  sensual  and 


56  REGERERATION. 

sordid  tastes  and  desires.  Is  it  not  true  that  even  those  who  do 
not  admit  the  necessity  of  regeneration  do  in  fact  expect  in  some 
mysterious  way  to  be  so  changed  at  death  that  heaven  will  be  a 
place  of  happiness  even  for  them  ?  And  what  is  this  expec- 
tat^'on  but  an  unconscious  affirmation  of  the  doctrine  of  the  text, 
"  Ye  .  list  be  born  again"  ?  Ye  must  be  changed  in  your  tastes, 
desires,  and  character  before  ye  can  enjoy  the  kingdom  of  God. 
Oh  !  my  hearer,  abandon  the  unfounded  hope  that  at  death  you 
will  undergo  any  such  change  as  will  make  you  "  meet  to  be  a 
partaker  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  Hght."  There  is  no 
sanctifying  power  in  death.  ''  As  the  tree  falleth,  so  shall  it  lie." 
"  He  that  is  unjust  will  be  unjust  still ;  he  that  is  filthy  will  be 
filthy  still ;  he  that  is  righteous  will  be  righteous  still ;  and  he 
that  is  holy  will  be  holy  still."  If  you  would  see  the  kingdom 
of  God  you  must  be  born  again  this  side  of  the  grave  ;  for  "  ex- 
cept a  man  (a  mayi,  not  a  disembodied  spirit,)  be  born  again,  he 
cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 


IV. 

FAITH. 

"Precious  faith." — 3  Pet.  i.  1. 

In  this  discourse  I  shall  answer  two  questions : 

First,  What  is  Faith? 

Second,  Why  does  the  Apostle  call  it  precious  ? 

I.  The  word  faith  is  used  in  several  distinct  senses  in  the 
Scriptures.  Sometimes,  it  means  simple  assent  to  the  truth  of 
the  Bible ;  sometimes,  a  temporary  impression  in  regard  to  God 
and  His  love;  sometimes,  the  power  to  work  miracles;  while 
^^  the  faith^''  means  the  whole  summary  of  Christian  doctrine. 

The  text  has  reference  to  none  of  these,  but  to  that  specific  act 
of  the  soul  by  which  a  sinner  is  justified  at  the  bar  of  God  on 
the  ground  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  him,  and 
which  to  distinguish  it  from  all  other  acts  of  the  soul,  is  called 
"  saving  faith." 

1.  Saving  faith  differs  from  every  other  act  of  the  soul,  in  that 
while  each  of  the  others  may  be  produced  or  caused  by  natural 
means,  it  is  the  result  of  supernatural  inworking  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  mysteriously  accompanying  the  truth  with  His  own  pow- 
erful demonstration,  and  divinely  convincing  it  of  the  excellence, 
beauty,  and  all-sufficiency  of  Jesus  Christ. 

2.  Saving  faith  differs  from  every  other  act  of  the  soul,  in  that 
•while  one  is  simply  an  act  of  the  intellect  assenting  to  truth,  and 
another,  a  state  of  the  emotions,  it  is  the  act  of  the  intellect,  the 
heart,  and  the  will — ^the  act  of  the  whole  soul  with  all  its  powers 
harmoniously  discharging  their  appropriate  functions  in  relation 
to  the  object. 

(57) 


58  FAITH. 

3.  Saving  faith  differs  from  all  those  acts  of  the  soul  some- 
times mistaken  for  it  by  a  diversity  as  to  the  object  on  whicli  it 
terminates.  Thus,  he  who  beUeves  that  the  Scriptures  are  true, 
simply  assents  to  a  logical  proposition  ;  he  who  thinks  he  is  in  a 
state  of  peace  because  he  has  felt  so  happy  in  attending  upon  ex- 
citing religious  services,  simply  believes  a  proposition  which  may 
or  may  not  be  true.  The  object  upon  which  saving  faith  termin- 
ates, is  not  a  historical  fact,  nor  a  proposition  nor  a  form  of 
words,  but  a. person,  a  hving  being,  to  whom  we  may  say,  "I  be- 
lieve Thy  word,  I  approve  Thy  law,  I  embrace  Thy  precious 
promises,  because  Thou  hast  spoken  the  word,  Thou  hast  enacted 
the  law.  Thou  hast  uttered  the  promises ;  I  love  Thee,  because 
Thou  hast  loved  me ;  I  give  myself  to  Thee,  because  Thou  hast 
given  Thyself  for  me;  I  cast  myself  upon  Thine  everlasting 
arms,  for  in  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  everlasting  strength ;  I  trust 
my  life,  my  soul,  my  all  to  Thee  forever :  for  I  know  Avhom  I 
have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  what  I 
have  committed  to  Him  against  that  day." 

The  expressions  used  in  Scripture  to  describe  the  exercise  of 
faith  show  that  it  is  something  very  different  from  simple  belief 
in  a  proposition. 

"Have  faith  in  God,"  "Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ," 
"  Look  unto  Me,"  "  Keceiving  Christ,"  "  Eating  of  Him,"  "  Com- 
ing to  Him,"  "Embracing  Him,"  "Fleeing  unto  Him,"  "Lay- 
ing hold  of  Him," — all  clearly  show  that  Faith  is  differentiated 
from  all  acts  of  belief  by  involving  as  its  essential  element  confi- 
dence in  a  person,  as  distinguished  from  belief  in  a  truth  em- 
bodied in  words. 

Now  we  may  have  confidence  in  a  human  as  well  as  in  a 
Divine  person.  Hence  there  is  a  human  faith  and  a  Divine 
faith. 

When  a  client  conmiits  a  cause  to  an  advocate  and  relies  on 
his  professional  skill  for  a  favorable  verdict,  thei'e  is  something 
different  from  mere  hel'ief ;  and  this  "something"  \&  faith — 
faith  terminating  on  2i  person  as  its  object. 

An  American  man-of-war  was  once  lying  becalmed  in  the 
Mediterranean.    The  son  of  the  captain,  a  playful  boy,  amused 


FAITH.  59 

himself  daily  by  climbing  the  rigging.  One  day,  with  the 
thoughtlessness  of  childhood,  he  ascended  to  the  very  top  of  the 
mainmast,  and  stood  upon  the  giddy  summit  swaying  to  and  fro 
with  the  gently-heaving  billow.  His  father  saw  him  from  the 
deck,  and  knowing  from  experience  that  it  would  be  impossible 
for  him  to  stoop  down  from  his  perilous  perch  to  regain  his  hold 
upon  the  mast,  without  falling  headlong  to  the  deck,  he  shouted 
to  him,  "  Jump  !  I  command  you,  jump  into  the  water  !  "  The 
boy  looked  down  to  assure  himself  that  it  was  his  father  that 
spoke,  and  then,  with  an  instantaneous  bound,  he  leaped,  cleared 
the  deck,  plunged  into  the  sea,  and  was  saved.  Here  was  some- 
thing different  from  belief.  It  was  faith  manifesting  itself 
in  prompt  obedience.  Precisely  the  same  act  of  the  soul  termin- 
ating on  God  is  that  Divine  faith  of  which  the  Bible  speaks. 
Faith  in  the  last  analysis  is  the  act  of  confiding  in  a  person  ; — 
human,  when  the  person  is  a  man ;  divine,  when  the  person  is 
God. 

This  explanation  of  faith  will  enable  you  to  understand  the 
11th  chapter  of  Hebrews — in  which  faith  is  represented  as 
underlying  all  those  heroic  doings  and  sufferings  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment saints,  "  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy."  "  By  faith, 
Abel  offered  a  more  acceptable  sacrifice  than  Cain ;  by  faith, 
Enoch  was  translated ;  by  faith,  Woah  built  an  ark ;  by  faith, 
Abraham  obeyed,  and  went  from  his  own  land,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went ;  by  faith,  he  offered  up  Isaac  ;  by  faith,  Moses 
refused  to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daughter ;  by  faith,  the 
Israelites  passed  through  the  Eed  Sea ;  by  faith,  heroes,  kings, 
and  prophets  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained 
promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  violence  of 
fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made 
strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the 
aliens ;  by  faith,  women  received  their  dead  raised  to  life  again ; 
and  others  were  tortured,  not  accepting  deliverance.  And  others 
had  trial  of  cruel  mockings  and  scourgings,  yea,  moreover,  of 
bonds  and  imprisonment.  They  were  stoned,  they  were  sawn 
asunder,  were  tempted,  were  slain  with  the  sword ;  they  wan- 
dered about  in  sheep-skins  and  goat-skins,  being  destitute,  af- 


60  FAITH. 

flicted,  tormented ;  they  wandered  in  deserts  and  mountains,  and 
in  dens  and  eaves  of  tlie  earth." 

Kegarding  faith  as  a  principle  implanted  in  the  soul  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  essence  of  which  is  confidence  in  a  person,  we 
can  see  how  it  is  the  germ  of  the  many  developments  ascribed  to 
it  by  the  Apostle  in  the  foregoing  enumeration  of  Faith's  con- 
flicts and  victories.  This  we  could  not  understand,  if  faith  were 
merely  a  belief  of  truth.  So  that  I  am  justified  in  saying  that 
Faith  is  not  belief,  but  it  is  a  cause  of  which  belief  is  only  one 
of  the  many  effects : — the  root  out  of  which  belief  and  many 
other  graces  grow. 

You  believe  one  man's  statement,  because  you  have  confi- 
dence in  the  man  himself;  you  disbelieve  another's,  because 
you  lack  confidence  in  the  man  himself.  And  so  the  Chris- 
tian believes  the  Word  of  God,  because  he  has  confidence  in 
God — the  personal  God — the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of 
Jacob. 

Now,  as  any  fundamental  principle  in  the  soul  makes  itself 
known  in  various  ways ; — as  benevolence,  for  example,  may  wear 
a  thousand  smiling  semblances ;  so  faith  exhibits  itself  outwardly 
in  various  forms — sometimes  by  believing  the  truth,  because  it  is 
revealed  by  God ;  sometimes  by  relying  on  His  promises ;  some- 
times by  prompt  obedience  to  His  commands ;  sometimes  by  filial 
love  and  reverence ;  sometimes  by  acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ  as  a 
Saviour.  Faith  is  confidence  in  God,  in  all  His  offices,  as  Crea- 
tor, Preserver,  and  Benefactor ;  or  as  Moral  Governor,  Redeem- 
er, and  Sanctifier.  And  justifying,  or  saving,  faith  is  that  specific 
act  of  the  soul,  in  which,  fixing  upon  God,  the  Redeemer,  as  its 
object,  it  flees  to  His  cross,  trusts  to  His  righteousness,  bows  to 
His  will,  and  clings  to  His  everlasting  arm. 

II.  I  come  now  to  the  second  question  I  propose  to  answer : 
"Why  does  the  Apostle  Peter  call  faith  "  precious"  2 
1.  Because  it  cannot  be  obtained  in  the  way  other  valuable  ac- 
quisitions are  made.     Gold  cannot  buy  it.     Labor  will  not  pro- 
cure it.     Birth,  talents,  learning,  will  not  acquire  it.     It  is  pr3- 
cious,  because  nothing  which  has  a  tangible  value  in  this  world 


FAITH.  61 

can  be  exchanged  for  it.  By  grace  ye  are  saved  tlirongh  faith, 
and  that  not  of  yourselves,  it  is  the  gift  of  God. 

Let  me  ilhistrate.  A  great  banquet  has  been  provided  through 
the  munificence  of  a  merchant  prince.  Tlie  invitations  cost 
y  nothing  to  those  who  receive  them.  They  cannot  be  purchased 
with  money.  So  precious  are  they,  that  if  they  could  be  bought, 
hundreds  would  pour  out  gold  for  the  privilege  of  admission  to 
the  great  supper.  None  can  enter  except  the  favored  few.  Is 
the  invitation  worth  nothing  because  it  costs  nothing  ?  Nay,  it 
enhances  its  value  that  it  can  be  obtained  only  as  a  gift. 

Belief  in  the  truth  of  the  Bible  may  be  attained  by  a  study  of 
the  overwhelming  proof  of  its  authenticity  and  inspiration ;  but 
"  precious  faith,"  the  "  faith  of  God's  elect,"  as  the  Apostle  calls 
it,  comes  not  "  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  \vill  of  man  " 
(John  i.  13),  but  of  the  "  demonstration  of  the  Spirit." 

2.  But  if  faith  is  precious  on  account  of  its  origin,  it  is  no  less 
precious  on  account  of  its  results. 

(1.)  It  is  the  instrument  of  our  justification  before  God's  law. 
"We  are  justified  by  faith  in  the  atoning  Saviour.  In  order  to 
realize  the  full  meaning  of  these  words,  you  must  in  imagination 
project  yourself  forward  to  that  great  day,  when  on  a  great 
white  throne,  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  shall  sit  to  pass  sen- 
tence upon  men  for  the  deeds  done  here  in  the  body.  The 
question  that  will  then  agitate  every  bosom  will  be,  "Wliere- 
with  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before  the 
high  God?" 

One  shall  say,  "  Lord,  in  Thy  name  have  I  prophesied,  and 
done  many  wonderful  works ";  another,  "  I  have  sacrificed 
burnt-offerings  and  poured  out  rivers  of  oil ";  another,  "  I  have 
given  my  first-born  for  my  transgressions — the  fruit  of  my  body 
for  the  sin  of  my  soul ";  another,  "  I  have  been  charitable,  ami- 
able, philanthropic  ";  another,  "  I  have  fasted  and  prayed,  have 
worn  hair-cloth,  and  scourged  myself  with  bloody  rods,  have 
done  many  '  works  of  supererogation,'  and  many  penances."  Oh ! 
my  friends !  in  the  blazing  light  of  eternity,  all  these  "  righteous- 
nesses" will  look  like  "  filthy  rags." 

But  there  shall  appear  another  before  that  august  tribunal, 


eg  FAITH. 

who  will  say :  Lord,  if  Thou  art  strict  to  mark  iniquities,  O 
Lord,  who  shall  stand  ?  And  when  God  shall  open  the  book 
of  judgment,  his  faith  shall  say,  "Lord,  I  place  the  death  of 
Jesus  between  me  and  Thy  judgment ;  otherwise  I  will  not  con- 
tend or  enter  into  judgment  with  Thee."  And  if  God  shall  say, 
"  But  thou  art  a  sinner,"  his  faith  shall  reply,  "  Lord,  I  put  the 
death  of  the  Lord  Jesus  between  me  and  my  sins,  and  I  offer 
His  merits  in  place  of  my  own,  which  I  ought  to  have,  but  have 
not."  And  if  God  shall  say,  "  But  I  am  angry  with  thee,"  his 
faith  will  reply,  "  Lord,  I  put  the  Lord  Jesus  between  me  and 
Thine  anger."  And  then  his  faith  shall  be  counted  to  him  for 
righteousness.  But  in  reality,  the  believer  shall  not  wait  till  that 
great  day  to  be  vindicated  before  that  high  court.  Even  now, 
while  on  earth,  his  sins  are  cancelled  and  his  justification  is  com- 
plete. He  does  not  walk  in  chains  expecting  future  deliverance. 
The  moment  he  trusted  in  Jesus  as  a  Saviour  his  chains  were 
struck  off,  his  sins  were  blotted  out,  and  his  name  was  written  in 
the  Lamb's  book  of  life ;  and  then  his  faith  was  "  the  substance 
of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  "  Precious 
faith ! " 

(2.)  Faith  is  precious,  because  it  gives  conscious  peace  with 
God.  The  believer  is  no  longer  afraid  of  God.  Why  should  he 
be  afraid  of  God  ?  It  is  God  that  has  justified  him ;  and  shall 
his  justifier  lay  anything  to  his  charge  ? 

Then,  as  a  necessary  consequence,  comes  peace  of  conscience. 
For  when  God  is  pacified,  his  own  conscience  is  also  pacified, 
and  then  through  faith,  he  realizes  the  "  peace  which  passeth  all 
understanding."     "  Precious  faith  ! " 

(3.)  Faith  gives  communion  2lX^^  fellowship  with  God.  As  the 
mutual  intercourse  between  men  depends  upon  the  confidence 
subsisting  between  them,  so  our  communion  with  God  depends 
upon  our  affectionate  confidence  in  Ilim  as  Preserver  and  Re- 
deemer. And  as  it  is  the  first  impulse  of  our  nature  to  flee  to 
the  person  in  whom  we  most  confide,  to  whisper  our  sorrows  in 
his  ear  or  to  claim  his  sympathy  with  our  joys,  so  the  soul  that 
trusts  in  God  communes  with  Him  in  secret,  or  talks  with  Him 
by  the  wayside.    Although  he  may  use  no  speech  or  language, 


FAITH.  63 

and  his  voice  be  not  heard,  yet,  like  Enoch,  he  "walks  with 
God,"  holding  sweet,  but  mysterious  colloquy. 

(4.)  Once  more.  Faith  gives  a  man  power  with  God ;  because 
one  of  the  strongest  principles  of  a  rightly  constituted  nature  is 
never  to  disappoint  any  confidence  justly  reposed  in  it.  Why, 
who  is  there  that  would  not  protect  a  fawn  pursued  by  the 
hunter,  if  it  should  leap  into  his  arms  and  with  liquid  eye  ap- 
peal for  succor  ?  or  a  dove,  pursued  by  a  hawk,  if  it  should  fly 
into  and  nestle  in  his  bosom?  An  appeal  by  innocence,  by 
helplessness,  or  by  distress,  in  which  the  individual  abandons 
himself  with  entire  confidence  to  us,  is  the  very  strongest  ap- 
peal that  can  be  made  to  our  nature ;  and  very  often  it  will  be  met 
by  the  greatest  sacrifices  not  only  of  individuals  but  of  great 
nations.  Let  any  refugee  from  political  European  tyranny  come 
to  our  shores  and  confide  himself  to  the  American  people  for 
protection,  and  let  him  be  pursued  by  Austria  or  Russia,  or  by 
the  world  in  arms,  and  the  whole  people  would  arise  hke  a 
living  wall  around  him,  and  he  would  be  taken  only  when  they 
had  trampled  down  a  nation  of  dead  men. 

Shall  men  do  this?  and  will  not  God  stretch  forth  His  arm 
over  those  who  nestle  under  the  shadow  of  His  wing  ?  Heaven 
and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  not  a  hair  of  the  head  of  that 
man  who  puts  bis  trust  in  God  shall  ever  fall  to  the  ground. 
Sooner,  far  sooner,  would  God  blot  out  the  universe  than  He 
would  disappoint  the  authorized  confidence  of  the  most  insig- 
nificant of  His  creatures.  Precious  faith!  which  gives  to 
feeble  man  such  power  with  God !  Learn  then  where  to  look 
to-day.  Don't  harass  yourself  with  the  question,  "  Do  I  really 
have  faith?"  You  do  yourself  harm  by  this  self-inspection. 
Turn  away  from  yourself  and  look  to  Jesus,  the  author  and 
finisher  of  faith.  Look  aloft !  Look  aloft !  If  with  the  peni- 
tential Psalmist  you  say,  "  But  my  sin  is  ever  before  me,"  turn 
away  from  it  and  gaze  on  that  Saviour  whose  glory  and  whose 
grace  are  most  conspicuously  illustrated  in  that  He  is  able  and 
wilhng  to  save  even  you. 


64  FAITH. 


*  Cling  to  the  Mighty  One  ; 

Cling  in  thy  gi*ief . 
Cling  to  the  Holy  One  ; 

He  gives  relief. 
Cling  to  the  Gracious  One  ; 

Cling  in  thy  pain. 
Cling  to  the  Faithfvd  One  ; 

He  will  sustain. 
Cling  to  the  Living  One  ; 

Cling  in  thy  woe. 
Cling  to  the  Loving  One  ; 

Through  all  below. 
Cling  to  the  Pardoning  One  ; 

He  speaketh  peace. 
Cling  to  the  Healing  One  ; 

Anguish  shall  cease. 
Cling  to  the  Bleeding  One  ; 

Cling  to  His  side. 
Cling  to  the  Eisen  One  ; 

In  Him  abide." 


V. 

JUSTIFICATION 

"  Being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God." — Rom.  v.  1. 

This  text  assumes  that  bj  nature  men  are  not  at  peace  with 
God.  I  shall  not  consume  time  in  proving  this.  In  your  hours 
of  quiet  reflection,  you  all  confess  that  all  is  not  right  between 
you  and  your  Maker.  "  The  soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die";  and 
as  all  have  sinned,  all  must  die,  unless  some  means  can  be  devised 
by  which  they  can  escape  the  penalty  of  sin. 

God  cannot  abolish  His  law  to  suit  your  case.  He  has  declared 
that  Pie  will  "  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  There  is  no  hope 
in  this  direction.  Yet  the  Gospel  comes  to  you  and  says,  Here 
is  a  scheme  devised  by  God,  and  executed  by  His  Son,  by  wliich 
you  who  are  really  a  guilty  sinner,  may  be  treated  as  if  jon  had 
never  sinned  at  all.  This  scheme  is  called  a  plan  of  Justification. 
Now  what  is  Justification  ?  It  "  is  an  act  of  God's  free  grace, 
wherein  He  pardons  all  our  sins  and  accepts  us  as  righteous  in 
His  sight  only  for  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  imputed  to  us, 
and  received  by  faith  alone." 

It  is  very  clear  from  the  use  of  the  word  "  Justification,"  both 
in  Scripture  and  in  our  common  talk,  that  it  has  respect  to  the 
violation  of  law.  We  never  speak  of  our  being  justified  in  doing 
an  innocent  act.  We  always  say  it  in  reference  to  something, 
contrary  to  law.  If  a  man  kills  another,  he  is  at  once  arrested^ 
Why  ?  Because  he  has  done  what  the  law  forbids.  But  suppose' 
he  did  it  in  self-defence  ?  He  is  at  once  released  on  the  ground 
that  he  was  justifiable.  But  even  though  everybody  knew  this, 
beforehand,  this  does  not  exempt  him  from  arrest  and  trial.  He 
is  liable  to  punishment  until  he  shall  be  by  law  pronounced 

(65): 


66  JUSTIFICATION. 

"  justified."  Observe,  the  Court  does  not  say  that  the  man  did 
not  kill  his  neighbor ;  it  simply  declares  that  although  he  did 
kill  he  cannot  be  legally  punished. 

Now  the  Bible  uses  the  word  "  justify "  in  the  same  sense 
exactly.  In  Scripture  usage  a  justified  man  is  not  one  who  is 
not  a  sinner ;  but  one  whom  for  good  reasons  God  will  treat  as 
if  he  had  never  sinned.  Justification  is  an  act  of  God.  "  It  is 
God  that  justifies,"  says  Paul.  It  is  an  act  of  God  declaring  the 
sinner  Just — i.  e.,  declaring  him  released  from  the  clutches  and 
the  penalty  of  the  Law.  Now  listen  carefully  to  a  very  import- 
ant statement.  God  stands  in  two  different  relations  to  all  His 
creatures  on  this  earth.  First,  He  is  their  King  ;  secondly,  He 
is  their  Judge. 

As  King,  He  makes  the  Law. 

As  Judge,  He  administers  and  executes  the  Law. 

Now,  although  I  have  been  preaching  to  you  constantly  about 
the  "  pardon  "  of  sin — and  this  use  of  the  word  is  right,  as  it  is 
the  Scripture  term — yet,  speaking  accurately,  I  say,  God  never 
pardons  sin.  Pardon  is  the  act  of  a  sovereign  who  forcibly  steps 
in  between  the  criminal  and  the  execution  and  sets  the  law  aside. 
Justification  is  the  act  of  a  just  judge  who  declares  that  the  law 
has  no  claim  upon  the  accused.  Pardon  releases  the  criminal  at 
the  very  moment  that  he  is  acknowledged  to  be  guilty. 

Justification  releases  him  on  the  ground  that  he  is  accounted 
just.  Pardon  supposes  guilt ;  Justification  is  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  freedom  from  guilt.  In  Pardon  the  law  is  set  aside.  In 
Justification  the  law  is  satisfied.  Pardon  remits  a  just  penalty. 
To  justify  is  to  declare  that  the  infliction  of  the  penalty  would 
be  unjust.  In  no  language  spoken  on  earth  do  the  words  to 
pardon  and  to  justify  mean  the  same  thing.  If  they  did  mean 
the  same  thing,  then  we  must  admit  that  the  law  of  God  may  be 
dispensed  with.  For  a  pardon  is  the  remission  of  a  sentence  the 
execution  of  which  justice  demands ;  of  course  the  law  would  be 
set  aside  if  justification  and  pardon  were  identical.  But  the 
Bible  is  uniform  in  the  declaration  that  the  law  is  immutable 
both  as  to  its  commands  and  its  penalty, — that  there  can  be  no 
remission  of  the  penalty  without  a  complete  satisfaction  of  the 


JUSTIFICATION.  67 

demands  of  the  law.  As,  therefore,  the  law  cannot  be  set  aside, 
that  act  of  God  which  justifies  the  sinner  must  be  something 
different  from  pardon.  Now  the  account  which  the  Scriptures 
give  of  Justification  shows  that  this  view  is  correct.  Justification 
is  a  dispensation  from  the  penalty  of  the  law,  and  a  restoration 
to  the  favor  of  God,  on  the  ground  of  the  sinner's  presenting  a 
righteousness — that  is,  presenting  before  the  law  the  very  thing 
that  the  law  demands.  Pardon  is  the  act  of  mere  sovereignty, 
and  does  not  demand  any  satisfaction  to  the  law.  Justification  is 
founded  on  a  full  satisfaction  to  the  law  ;  and,  ei^go,  it  cannot  be 
pardon.  Another  important  distinction  is  this  :  Pardon  simply 
remits  a  penalty.  The  pardoned  criminal  is  an  outcast  from 
society.  He  is  looked  upon  with  suspicion  and  distrust.  Have 
you  never  seen  how  hard  it  is  for  a  pardoned  felon  to  regain  the 
lost  confidence  of  his  fellow-men  ?  But  justification  not  only 
remits  a  penalty ;  it  actually  confers  a  title  to  the  rewards  of 
actual  holiness  :  so  the  justified  are  not  only  delivered  from  hell, 
but  have  a  clear  title  to  heaven.  This  is  in  perfect  consistency 
with  strict  justice.  The  law  demands  a  perfect  righteousness, 
and  promises  eternal  life  to  every  one  who  complies  with  this 
demand.  Now  in  justification  the  sinner  is  provided  with  a  per- 
fect righteousness — the  very  thing  that  the  law  demands — there- 
fore he  who  is  justified  has  a  right  to  demand  admission  into 
heaven.  The  everlasting  doors  are  thrown  open  wide,  and  the 
ranks  of  the  angels  give  way  ;  the  fiery  cherub  sheathes  his  sword 
to  allow  any  one  to  enter  and  ascend  who  appears  clothed  in  the 
righteousness  of  God,  the  Son.  Who  dares  bar  his  entrance 
now  ?  It  is  God  that  has  justified  him.  Who  dares  condemn 
him  ? 

Thus  you  see  that  pardon  and  justification  have  only  one  point 
of  resemblance,  in  this — that  both  release  the  criminal  from  pun- 
ishment. 

Here  are  the  points  of  difference : 

Justification  is  the  act  of  a  just  judge.  Pardon  is  the  arbi- 
trary act  of  a  sovereign.  Justification  recognizes  the  claims  of 
justice.  Pardon  tramples  on  justice.  Justification  rewards. 
Pardon  simply  releases.     To  justify  the  sinner  is  the  only  way 


68  JUSTIFICATION. 

in  wliicli  God,  as  a  just  Judge,  can  save  him.  Do  you  not  see 
tliat  I  was  right  in  saying  that  in  the  strict  use  of  words  God 
cannot  be  said  to  pardon  ? 

Now  you  ask  very  pertinently :  How  can  God  remain  just 
and  yet  be  a  justifier  of  a  man  who  is  acknowledged  to  be  un- 
godly ? 

This  brings  us  to  the  very  marrow  of  the  Gospel. 

The  Apostle  tells  us  that  Christ,  who  knew  no  sin,  was  made 
sin  for  us,  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
Him.  The  Scriptures  say  distinctly  that  nothing  we  can  do  will 
avail  to  make  us  just  before  God  ;  that  we  are  justified  solely  on 
the  ground  of  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  of  the  ISTew ;  for  Isaiah,  the 
prophet,  calls  Christ  the  "  Lord  our  Eighteousness." 

Now,  I  want  to  answer  another  question  that  has  come  into 
your  minds :  "  How  can  the  righteousness  of  one  person  be  the 
ground  of  the  justification  of  another  ? "  "  God  requires  me  to 
be  holy."  "  How  can  the  righteousness  of  Christ  satisfy  this 
demand  upon  me  ?  "  I  answer,  it  cannot,  unless  it  can  be  "  im- 
jputecV  to  me  :  unless  I  can  be  accounted  to  have  it  though  in- 
herently destitute  of  it.  You  ask  again,  "  Is  not  this  a  mere 
sham  ?  Can  a  just  and  holy  God  give  me  credit  for  what  I  do 
not  really  have  ? "  I  answer.  He  can,  provided  you  are  so  united 
with  Christ,  that  He  stands  as  your  representative.  You  all 
understand  this  doctrine  of  representation ;  what  the  Senator 
from  Kentucky  does  in  Congress  the  people  of  Kentucky  are 
accounted  as  doing.  The  world  holds  you  responsible  for  his 
acts  ;  although  you  may  not  know  at  the  time  what  he  is  doing. 
They  are  imputed  to  you.  You  know  the  old  law  maxim,  What 
one  does  by  an  agent,  he  himself  is  accounted  as  doing. 

But  how  does  Christ  become  your  representative?  I  answer, 
by  your  electing  Him  to  take  your  place.  This  election  of  Jesus 
Christ  as  your  representative  in  the  high  court  of  heaven  is 
called  "  faith."  By  this  act  of  faith,  you  become  united  with 
Him.  His  righteousness  is  your  righteousness.  His  bearing  the 
penalty  of  your  sin  is  your  bearing  it.  By  means  of  this  union 
with  Christ  as  your  representative,  you  are  legally  accounted  as 


JUSTIFICATION.  QQ 

doing  and  suffering  all  that  He  did  and  suffered  for  yon.  It  is 
to  this  the  Apostle  refers  when  he  says,  "  I  am  crucified  with 
Christ";  and  again,  "  Therefore  we  are  buried  with  Him  by  bap- 
tism into  death  ";  that  is,  as  our  baptism  is  the  outward  sign  of 
our  profession  of  faith  in  Christ,  when  we  are  baptized  we  be- 
come so  united  with  Him,  that  His  death  is  our  death,  His  burial 
our  burial. 

Thus  faith,  union  with  Christ,  imputation  of  His  righteousness 
to  us,  and  justification,  are  all  distinct,  but  essential  links  in  the 
great  chain  of  man's  redemption.  And  as  these  two, — faith,  the 
act  of  man,  and  justification,  the  act  of  God, — are  at  the  two  ends 
of  the  chain,  the  one  on  earth,  the  other  in  heaven ;  the  Apostle, 
omitting  the  intermediate  links  of  the  series,  says :  "  Therefore, 
being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God."  I  have  been 
answering  your  questions,  now  I  want  you  to  answer  mine. 
"Will  you  accept  salvation  on  these  terms  ?  Do  not  say,  "  I  will 
think  about  it  and  tell  you  some  time  soon."  You  must  come  to 
this  at  last,  if  you  are  ever  saved  at  all.  You  must  consent  to  be 
saved  as  a  sinner,  without  a  ray  of  your  own  righteousness.  If  you 
ever  feel  good  enough  to  merit  salvation,  you  may  be  sure  that 
this  self-righteousness  will  make  you  stumble  before  you  reach 
the  cross.  A  man  never  feels  so  vile  as  at  the  instant  he  casts 
himself  on  Christ.  By  grace  ye  are  saved  through  faith.  Now, 
I  want  every  unconverted  man,  woman,  and  child,  before  he 
leaves  this  house,  to  answer  this  question  to  his  own  heart :  '^Am 
I  willing  to  abandon  every  other  ground  of  hope  and  trust  to 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  ?  "  There  is  nothing  mysterious  or 
unintelligible  in  what  I  ask  you  to  do.  It  is  exactly  like  any 
other  determination  you  may  form.  It  needs  no  long  prepara- 
tion, no  praying,  no  humbling  of  yourself  before  God,  no  fast- 
ing, no  moaning,  no  laceration  of  soul  or  body.  You  do  not 
need  to  prepare  for  it  by  long  and  bitter  penitence,  by  painful 
and  protracted  self-examination,  or  by  a  month  or  a  week  spent 
in  the  endeavor  to  break  off  bad  habits.  You  cannot  prepare 
yourself  to  receive  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  Christ  holds  out 
no  hope  to  the  man  who  tries  to  make  himself  righteous.  He 
did  not  come  to  save  the  righteous.     A  righteous  man  does 


70  JUSTIFICATION. 

not  need  salvation.  The  salvation  of  the  Lord  Jesus  is  a  sal- 
vation for  sinners.  Such  an  idea  as  salvation  by  works,  by 
merit,  by  making  yourself  worthy  to  receive  the  righteousness 
of  God— wliy,  this  frustrates  the  grace  of  God ;  it  subverts  the 
Gospel.  It  would  reverse  the  song  of  the  redeemed  in  heaven ; 
for  that  song  is,  "  Unto  Him  who  hath  loved  us,  and  washed  us 
from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  be  glory  and  dominion."  But 
if  you  are  to  prepare  yourselves  for  grace,  your  song  would  be, 
"  Unto  myself,  who  have  made  myself  fit  for  salvation,  and  wor- 
thy of  God's  mercy ;  unto  me  be  all  the  praise  and  the  glory." 
What  a  travesty  of  the  Gospel  this  would  be ! 

A  missionary  among  the  Indians  was  visited  by  a  proud  chief, 
who  had  been  deeply  convicted  of  sin  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The 
savage,  while  trembling  under  a  sense  of  guilt,  was  unwilling, 
like  a  great  many  civilized  people,  to  take  of  the  water  of  life 
freely.  He  brought  his  wampum  to  the  missionary  and  ten- 
dered it  as  a  peace-offering  to  God.  The  man  of  God  shook  his 
head  and  said,  "  No,  God  will  not  accept  this  as  an  atonement  for 
sin."  He  went  away,  but  came  again,  bringing  his  wife  and  all 
the  peltry  he  had  taken  in  hunting.  The  missionary  still  shook 
his  head,  and  again  the  wretched  sinner  withdrew.  But  the 
Spirit  gave  him  no  peace,  and  he  returned  once  more  to  offer  his 
wigwam,  his  wife,  his  children,  and  all  that  he  had,  to  have 
"  peace  with  God."  The  missionary  still  shook  his  head.  The 
chief  stood  for  a  moment,  his  head  bowed  down  in  despair,  and, 
raising  his  eyes  to  heaven,  his  heart  poured  forth  in  a  cry  of  un- 
reserved surrender,  "  Here,  Lord,  take  poor  Indian  too." 

To  this,  my  friends,  you  must  come  at  last,  if  you  would 
"  have  peace  with  God." 

*'  But  drops  of  grief  can  ne'er  repay 
The  debt  of  love  I  owe  ; 
Here,  Lord,  I  give  myself  away, 
'Tis  all  that  I  can  do." 

One  word  of  counsel : 

I  never  preach  the  Gospel  without  confidently  expecting  some 
soul  to  be  converted.  I  have  no  doubt  that  some  of  you  have 
accepted  Jesus  Christ  this  day.     Now,  hear  what  Jesus  says: 


JUSTIFICA  TION.  71 

"  Whosoever  confesseth  me  before  men,  Mm  shall  the  Son  of 
Man  confess  before  the  angels  of  God ;  but  he  that  denieth  me 
before  men  shall  be  denied  before  the  angels  of  God."  But  one 
way  to  confess  Christ  before  men  is  to  do  so  publicly  in  the 
Church  of  God.  Come,  then,  to  the  church  of  your  father  and 
of  your  sainted  mother,  or  to  the  church  where  your  wife  has 
been  praying  for  you,  lo  !  these  many  years,  or  to  any  Christian 
church  near  which  you  live,  and  cast  in  your  lot  with  it,  saying : 

"  People  of  the  living  God, 

I  have  sought  the  world  around, 
Paths  of  sin  and  sorrow  trod, 

Peace  and  comfort  nowhere  foiind: 
Now  to  you  my  spirit  turns, 

Tui'ns  a  fugitive,  unblest  ; 
Bretlu'en,  where  your  altar  bums, 

Oh  !  receive  me  into  rest." 


VI. 

CONYICTIOK 

"  I  remembered  God  and  was  troubled." — Ps.  Ixxvii.  3. 

All  men  seek  congenial  objects  of  meditation.  If  at  any  time 
unpleasant  subjects  are  forced  upon  their  attention,  either  by  ac- 
cident or  by  the  mysterious  law  of  the  association  of  ideas,  they 
are  speedily  expelled  from  the  mind  as  unwelcome  intruders. 
As  the  happiness  of  most  men  depends  upon  their  peace  of  mind 
rather  than  upon  their  external  surroundings;  and  as  all  men 
seek  happiness  by  an  instinct  of  nature,  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  endeavor  to  banish  from  their  minds  all  thoughts  that 
might  endanger  their  wonted  tranquillity.  This  will  account  for 
the  aversion  to  serious  meditation  which  characterizes  the  larger 
part  of  mankind.  It  fully  explains  that  habitual  lethargy  in 
regard  to  matters  of  religion  which  we  find  so  common  among 
men  of  the  world.  Men  cannot  reflect  upon  their  origin,  their 
duty,  and  their  destiny,  without  thinking  about  God ;  and  think- 
ing about  God  is  adapted  to  produce  trouble — not  metaphysical 
trouble — that  intellectual  travail  which  attends  the  comprehen- 
sion or  the  solving  of  some  mystery  or  some  perplexing  problem  ; 
but  that  trouble  which  comes  from  a  restless,  disquieted  con- 
science ;  the  uneasiness  of  a  wounded  spirit,  which  inspired  ^\ns- 
dom  tells  us  is  hard  to  bear.  Hence  the  Psalmist  says :  "  The 
fool  hath  said  in  his  heart,  '  there  is  no  God '  ";  i.  (?.,  he  says  so 
in  his  desires,  not  in  his  intellect.  It  is  only  in  his  heart  that  the 
atheism  resides.  He  wishes  that  there  were  no  God ;  hence  he 
would  fain  believe  that  there  is  no  God,  and  his  practical  life  is 
moulded  insensibly  into  an  habitual  forgetfulness  of  God.  For 
_  .  (72) 


CONVICTION.  73 

the  same  reason,  as  the  Apostle  says,  the  heathen  "  did  not  Uke 
to  retain  God  in  their  knowledge." 

This  aversion  to  God  of  the  natural  heart  manifests  itself  in 
every  class  of  men.  When  they  "remember  God  they  are 
troubled,"  and  therefore  they  banish  thoughts  of  God  from  their 
minds.  The  expedients  by  which  they  seek  to  do  this,  may  be 
all  reduced  to  two  classes. 

First,  there  is  speculative  Atheism.  Among  men  of  a  reflect- 
ing turn  of  mind,  the  questions,  whence  am  I  ?  and  whither  am  I 
going  ?  often  suggest  tliemselves.  These  questions  at  once  bring 
God  to  the  mind.  If  the  thought  of  God  thus  suggested  is  dis- 
tressing, they  often  seek  a  refuge  in  what  they  regard  a  rational 
scepticism  ;  or,  if  they  cannot  force  themselves  into  the  absurdity 
of  Atheism,  they  deny  the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  make  for  them- 
selves a  god  of  whom  they  may  speak  without  fear,  and  whom 
they  may  remember  without  "  being  troubled." 

But  a  far  more  common  as  well  as  a  more  invulnerable  for- 
getting of  God  is  the  Atheism  of  the  fool  who  says  in  his  feel- 
ings and  desires,  "  There  is  no  God."  It  is  the  practical  ignoring 
of  God  in  His  distinctive  character — not  the  theoretical  denial  of 
His  existence — a  knowing  of  God  and  yet  not  glorifying  Him  as 
God — the  outward  acknowledgment,  the  habitual,  inward  for- 
getting of  Him.  This  is  the  most  prevalent  form  of  Atheism, 
and  the  secret  cause  of  it  is  disclosed  in  the  text :  When  men 
"remember  God  they  are  troubled''^:,  or  as  Job  expresses  it, 
"  When  I  consider,  I  am  afraid  of  Him."  A  calm,  deliberate 
analysis  of  the  Divine  character,  and  of  our  relations  to  the 
Divine  Being,  is  adapted  to  awaken  the  emotion  of  fear  in  the 
breast  of  the  natural  man. 

Wicked  men  seem  to  think  frequently  of  God.  They  do  not 
hesitate  to  utter  His  name  on  the  most  trivial  occasions ;  and,  so 
far  from  being  troubled  by  them,  such  recollections  of  God  give 
them  no  concern  whatever.  It  is  not  to  such  impious  recollec- 
tions of  God  that  the  Psalmist  alludes,  nor  even  to  the  common 
recognitions  of  God  that  flit  through  the  minds  of  all  men.  So 
far  from  exciting  a  sense  of  uneasiness,  such  transient  reminis- 
cences familiarize  the  mind  with  His  august  and  reverend  name, 


74  CONVICTION. 

and  only  aggravate  the  habitual  irreverence.  But  if  men  could 
only  be  induced  to  replace  these  transient  and  unmeaning 
thoughts  of  God  by  one  hom-'s  serious  contemplation  of  the 
Divine  character,  they  would  find  tliat  the  experiment  is  adapted 
to  disturb  their  quiet,  to  harrow  up  their  fears — in  short,  to  give 
them  "trouble." 

If  any  of  you  who  hear  me,  doubt  this,  let  me  invite  you  to 
such  a  remembering  of  God ;  and  if  you  will  faithfully  and  in- 
telHgently  follow  me  in  the  course  of  thought  which  I  shall  sug- 
gest, you  may  perhaps  be  ready  to  echo  the  language  of  the  text : 
"  I  remembered  God  and  was  troubled." 

Arrest  the  current  of  your  listless  thoughts,  and  "  consider  and 
be  afraid  of  Him." 

In  order  to  think  profitably  of  God  so  as  to  be  aflPected  by  a 
meditation  upon  His  character,  we  must  think  of  His  several  at- 
tributes as  they  are  revealed  in  His  Word.  I  invite  you,  there- 
fore, to  think  of  some  of  those  Divine  attributes,  the  remem- 
brance of  which  is  adapted  to  produce  uneasiness  in  the  mind  of 
a  sinner. 

1.  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  a  Being  of  immaculate  hohness 
and  purity.  Now  it  is  the  instinct  of  an  unholy  being  to  dread 
the  presence  and  slxun  the  approach  of  one  that  is  holy.  It  is 
not  necessary  to  explain  why  this  is  so.  It  is  enough  to  know 
that  it  is  so.  It  accords  with  the  observation  and  experience  of 
every  one  of  us.  The  aversion  between  the  holy  and  the  unholy 
is  mutual.  The  antipathy  is  equal.  And  as  a  being  of  perfect 
purity  can  regard  a  sinful  being  only  with  abhorrence,  the  sinner 
knows  that  the  pure  eye  of  the  Holy  One  is  looking  on  him  with 
disapproval.  Hence  a  vivid  recognition  of  the  holiness  of  God 
is  always  followed  by  the  pungent  and  painful  conviction  of  sin. 
We  cannot  look  at  His  purity  without  the  immediate  conscious- 
ness of  our  own  vileness.  As  soon  as  Adam  heard  the  voice  of 
a  holy  God  in  the  garden,  he  looked  upon  his  own  nakedness 
with  shame  oxxAfear  ;  so  when  we  fix  our  minds  upon  a  holy  God, 
we  at  once  look  inward  at  our  own  uncleanness.  In  the  broad 
glare  of  the  sunshine,  we  see  filthiness  on  our  garments  that  was 
invisible  in  the  darkness  of  the  night.     But  this  is  not  all.     The 


CONVICTION.  75 

sense  of  sin  awakened  in  the  human  bosom  by  the  contemplation 
of  a  holy  God,  is  immediately  succeeded  by  the  sense  of  guilt. 
The  sinner  then  feels  hke  stubble  before  consuming  lire.  This 
experience  is  not  confined  to  the  wicked  man.  The  best  and 
holiest  men  upon  a  vivid  perception  of  this  Divine  attribute  are 
filled  with  trepidation  and  dismay  on  account  of  the  contrast 
presented  in  themselves.  When  Isaiah  saw  the  Lord  sitting 
upon  His  throne  high  and  Hfted  up,  and  heard  the  seraphim 
lauding  this  attribute,  crying  one  to  another,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is 
the  Lord  of  Hosts,"  he  cried,  smitten  with  fear  and  with  deep 
conviction  of  personal  sin,  "  Woe  is  me,  for  I  am  undone :  be- 
cause I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips,"  and  he  had  no  peace  until  he 
received  angelic  assurance  of  the  purgation  of  his  iniquity.  This 
conviction  of  sin  and  consequent  sense  of  guilt  produce  mental 
trouble,  because  the  sinner  knows  that  a  holy  God  must  of  neces- 
sity abhor  him.  He  can  have  no  pleasure  in  wickedness.  He  is 
of  '*  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  evil,  and  cannot  look  upon  in- 
iquity." He  "hates  all  workers  of  iniquity."  And  even  though 
His  hatred  of  the  j?(?/'«(?w<<?  of  believers  is  removed  by  their  faith 
in  the  atonement,  yet  His  hatred  of  their  sin  is  not  in  the  least 
abated  thereby.  N'ow  the  distinct  recognition  of  this  Divine 
attribute  involves  the  recognition  of  all  these  truths.  Think  of 
the  fact  that  the  greatest  Being  in  the  universe  is  looking  down 
from  His  high  and  lofty  throne  upon  you  with  a  disapprobation 
so  intense  that  He  is  represented  in  a  figure  as  averting  His 
gaze  from  you,  because  He  cannot  bear  to  look  upon  you  in  your 
vileness ;  and  is  not  the  thought  adapted  to  produce  such  a  state 
of  mental  perturbation  as  would  lead  you  to  echo  the  language 
of  the  text,  "  I  remembered  God  and  was  troubled  "  ? 

2.  Intimately  connected  with  the  remembrance  of  God's  holiness 
is  the  recognition  of  His  justice.  For  His  justice  is  only  another 
aspect  of  His  holiness.  His  holiness  is  that  attribute  by  which 
He  loves  the  right  and  abhors  the  wrong.  His  justice  rewards 
the  good  and  punishes  the  evil.  It  is  an  essential  attribute  of 
God.  He  cannot  be  other  than  just.  He  must  punish  sin. 
Hence  the  Bible  represents  this  attribute  as  like  fire.  As  it  is 
essential  to  fire  to  burn,  so  it  is  essential  to  the  Divine  nature  to 


76  CONVICTION. 

punish  all  iniquity.  "  Our  God  is  a  consuming  fire."  Consider, 
then,  what  God's  justice  will  compel  Him  to  do.  Having  pro- 
mulgated His  Law,  He  must  abide  by  His  declaration  that  He 
will  by  no  means  clear  him  that  is  guilty  of  its  violation.  To 
reward  the  good  and  to  punish  the  bad  is  the  rule  of  the  just 
administration  of  Law.  It  is  not  optional  with  God  to  de\aate 
from  this  rule  in  His  moral  government  of  His  creatures.  And 
of  His  determination  to  deal  wdth  you  according  to  His  immuta- 
ble purpose,  He  has  fully  and  frequently  advised  you  in  His 
"Word :  "  I  will  render  vengeance  to  mine  enemies  and  will  reward 
them  that  hate  me  "  (Deut,  xxxii.  41).  "  He  will  not  be  slack  to 
him  that  hateth  Him  ;  He  will  repay  him  to  his  face"  (Deut.  vii. 
10).  "  The  Lord  is  slow  to  anger,  and  great  in  power,  and  will 
not  at  all  acquit  the  wicked  "  (Nahum  i.  3).  To  all  holy  beings, 
this  consistency  of  character  and  purpose,  this  harmony  of  pur- 
pose with  the  execution  of  it,  must  be  the  objects  of  continual 
admiration,  love,  and  praise.  But  alas  for  the  sinner  !  that  very 
Justice  which  decks  the  Seraphim  with  beauties  and  fills  the 
Cherubim  with  joy  is  a  svrord,  a  terror,  and  a  curse  to  his  shrink- 
ing, cowering  spirit.  It  weighs  him  in  the  balances,  and  he  is 
found  w^anting.  It  restlessly  pursues  him.  Its  sword,  like  that 
of  Damocles,  hangs  suspended  over  him  by  a  hair,  while  he 
reclines  at  his  banquet ;  while  he  journeys,  it  sits  behind  the 
rider.  In  all  his  daily  walks,  the  emissary  of  Justice  is  dogging 
his  footsteps,  bearing  the  scroll  of  his  sentence  on  which  is  in- 
scribed in  dreadful  capitals,  "  Condemned  Already '':  while  by 
his  side  the  recording  angel  bears  the  indictment  containing  the 
accumulating  catalogue  of  offences  which  swell  the  vast  aggre- 
gate of  ill-desert.  His  best  deeds  all  contribute  a  quota  of  guilt ; 
and  so  far  from  extenuating  aught  or  cancelling  any,  there  is 
enough  in  what  he  deems  his  "  good  works  "  to  justify  the  reiter- 
ation and  confirmation  of  the  sentence,  "  Condemned  Already." 
Let  him  try  to  draw  around  him  the  mantle  of  a  moral  life,  and 
thus  hide  his  secret  sins ; — Justice  inexorable  tears  away  the 
flimsy  veil,  and  tramples  on  it  as  "  filthy  rags,"  and  thus  disclos- 
ing the  hidden  deformity,  points  with  rigid  finger  to  the  writing 
on  the  scroll  of  judgment,  "  Guilty  before  God^  "  Condemned 


CONVICTION.  77 

Already."  This  transition  in  thought  from  the  justice  of  God 
to  a  man's  sense  of  his  own  ill-desert  is  inevitable ;  the  two  are 
inseparably  associated  in  consciousness,  and  the  man  seeks  in  vain 
to  divorce  them.  The  consciousness  of  being  amenable  to  the 
penalty  of  the  just  law  of  a  holy  God  is  the  source  of  intolerable 
disquietude  ;  and  hence  he  who  thinks  of  God  in  reference  to 
His  inexorable  justice,  can  truly  say,  "  I  remembered  God  and. 
was  troubled." 

3.  While  the  soul  is  thus  perturbed  by  reflecting  upon  God's 
justice,  its  agitation  is  exasperated  by  the  remembrance  of  God's 
knowledge. 

The  man  who  has  sinned  against  the  law  of  the  land,  or  against 
the  conventional  rules  of  society,  feels  a  sense  of  security  as  long 
as  he  thinks  his  act  is  unknown  to  the  magistrate  or  to  those 
whose  condemnation  would  put  him  under  the  ban.  The  very 
moment  he  has  reason  to  think  he  is  even  only  suspected  by 
either,  that  very  moment  they  become  to  him  objects  of  aversion 
or  of  fear.  If,  however,  he  knows  that  they  not  only  suspect 
but  hnow  him  to  be  guilty,  the  thought  of  this  knowledge  on 
their  part  becomes  to  him  a  source  of  the  most  harassing  agita- 
tion ;  and  as  often  as  the  picture  of  those  who  he  fears  will 
become  his  accusers  is  presented  to  his  mind,  so  often  is  the  pre- 
sentation a  cause  of  mental  uneasiness  and  of  aversion  toward 
those  whom  he  fears.  Now  it  is  precisely  this  state  of  mind  and 
this  attitude  toward  God  which  are  produced  by  the  calm  consid- 
eration of  the  Divine  Omniscience.  For  this  knowledge  of  God 
is  absolutdy  all-comprehending,  extending  over  the  whole  of  the 
past  and  stretching  out  over  the  limitless  future ;  terminating, 
not  only  on  the  vast  concerns  which  by  themselves  would  tax  the 
most  towering  created  mind  to  hold  them,  but  upon  the  thoughts 
and  intents  of  every  created  heart ;  piercing  through  the  tliick 
darkness  of  the  night,  and  through  the  thicker  veil  that  enshrouds 
the  inner  recesses  of  the  human  soul ;  bringing  out  into  bold 
relief  before  the  infinite  Eye  those  more  subtle  shades  of  emotion 
and  those  half-formed,  furtive  purposes  which  escape  the  grasp 
of  a  man's  own  consciousness ;  catching  every  idle  word  that  falls 
from  thoughtless  lips ;   and  stamping  on  the  Eternal  Memory 


78  CONVICTION. 

every  act,  thought,  word,  and  feeling  of  the  man  from  the  very 
dawn  of  consciousness  till  the  present  moment.  The  sins  of 
youth,  forgotten  by  the  man  himself ;  the  sins  of  manhood  and 
of  riper  years  palliated  and  excused  before  the  bar  of  conscience ; 
the  sins  now  premeditated,  but  not  yet  consummated  ;  sins  of 
omission,  sins  of  commission  ;  sins  against  God,  against  neighbor, 
against  husband,  against  wife,  against  self,  all  "  naked  and  open 
before  the  eye  of  Ilim  with  whom  we  have  to  do."  The  multi- 
tude and  multiplicity  of  His  concerns  do  not  and  cannot  avert 
His  eye  or  divert  His  attention  for  one  moment  from  the  cease- 
less contemplation  of  the  guilt  of  every  individual  human  soul. 
It  is  as  if  that  one  human  being  were  the  only  being  in  the  uni- 
verse that  attracts  the  attention  of  his  Maker,  and  as  if  the  burn- 
ing eye  of  the  Almighty  were  glaring  only  upon  him  in  its  fierce 
wrath  and  hot  displeasure.  As  it  is  the  triumph  of  the  painter 
so  to  delineate  the  eye  in  the  portrait  that  it  shall  seem  to  gaze 
steadily  upon  each  one  of  a  hundred  persons  in  the  same  room, 
60  that  each  feels  himself  to  be  the  only  one  to  whom  the  gaze  is 
directed,  so  the  eye  of  God  rests  upon  each  one  of  us.  "  Thou, 
God,  seest  wz^,"  is  the  confession  of  every  man  who  has  a  right 
conception  of  God.  Can  any  man,  then,  thus  remember  God 
without  crying  out  with  the  Psalmist,  "  /  remembered  God  and 
was  troubled  "  ? 

4.  Turn  now  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Power  of  this  Holy, 
Just,  Omniscient  God.  It  is  by  His  power  that  He  accomplishes 
all  the  decrees  of  His  justice  and  His  goodness.  His  power  ex- 
tends to  every  part  of  the  universe,  and  to  every  event  actual  or 
possible.  It  reaches  to  the  utmost  star,  and  yet  finds  a  field  for 
its  exercise  in  the  mote  that  sparkles  in  the  sunbeam.  It  holds 
the  hard  round  world  in  its  orbit,  and  it  shapes  the  dew-drop  into 
a  sphere.  It  rides  the  circle  of  eternal  change,  while  it  propels 
the  vital  current  through  every  vein  and  artery  of  organized  life. 
Its  finger  measures  the  interminable  periods  of  the  comet,  while 
it  counts  the  pulsations  of  the  heart  of  the  oyster.  His  power 
flashes  in  the  blazing  band  of  Orion,  while  it  lights  up  the 
meadow  with  the  mild  lustre  of  the  glow-worm.  It  holds  the 
canopy  of  heaven  upon  its  ethereal  pillars,  while  it  distends  the 


CONVICTION.  79 

bubble  that  sparkles  on  the  rim  of  the  beaker.  If  we  staud  ter- 
ror-struck in  the  rush  of  the  whirlwind,  or  smitten  with  awe  in 
the  presence  of  the  strong  torrents  w^hich  in  their  own  gladness 
fill  the  hills  with  hollow  thunder,  if  the  earthquake  makes  our 
hearts  quake,  how  much  more  really  adapted  to  awaken  the 
emotion  of  terror  is  the  bare  thought  that  our  breath  is  in  the 
hands  of  God,  and  that  a  single  touch  of  His  finger  could  stop 
the  beating  of  our  hearts ;  nay,  that  if  He  should  only  for  one 
instant  withdraw  His  sustaining  hand,  we  would  sink  and  die.  If 
thus  the  weakness  of  God  is  so  much  stronger  than  we,  when  we 
remember  that  all  Nature  is  but  His  laboratory  filled  with  an  in- 
finite number  of  occult  forces,  any  one  of  which  He  can  in  an 
instant  commission  to  become  our  destroyer,  this  reflection  upon 
His  infinite  resources  and  the  "  hiding  of  His  power  "  is  adapted 
to  deepen  our  conception  of  the  frailty  of  the  tenure  by  which 
we  stand  upon  the  confines  of  hfe.  Think,  then,  of  an  infinitely 
holy,  just,  omniscient  and  all-powerful  God  who  hates  sin,  whose 
justice  condemns  you,  and  whose  knowledge  searches  your  in- 
most being,  and  who  holds  in  His  hand  an  omnipotent  rod  of 
punishment,  and  you  can  but  cry  out  with  David,  "  I  remembered 
God  and  was  troubled." 

5.  If  such  thoughts  as  these  about  God  are  adapted  to  give  the 
sinner  trouble,  he  is  apt  to  console  himself  by  thinking  of  God's 
goodness.  Like  the  sublime  vision  which  Moses  saw,  God  makes 
all  His  goodness  pass  before  us  in  the  daily  pageant  of  ]SI"ature'8 
shifting  beauty :  in  the  changing  seasons,  in  golden  harvests,  in 
fruits  and  flowers,  in  cooling  zephyrs,  and  refreshing  waters. 
But  suppose  that  every  star  and  every  flower  could  become  vocal, 
and  could  utter  a  voice  of  reproach  to  man's  ingratitude ;  sup- 
pose that  every  morsel  of  food  were  endowed  with  a  sting,  and 
every  cup  of  water  were  drawn  from  a  well  of  Marah,  in  order 
to  remind  you  that  you  have  forgotten  God's  goodness,  for  the 
very  reason  that  the  bread  is  given  and  the  water  sure ;  suppose 
that  God's  Providence  should  become  intermittent,  in  order  to 
show  you  that  your  gratitude  to  the  Giver  of  every  thing  good 
has  ceased,  for  the  very  reason  that  the  constancy  of  His  protec- 
tion had  assumed  the  semblance  of  natural  law ;  you  might  then 


80  CONVICTION. 

confess  in  view  of  even  His  goodness,  "  I  remembered  God  and 
was  troubled."  And  shall  the  remembrance  of  this  goodness, 
forgotten  and  unrequited,  give  you  less  uneasiness  though  seasons 
roll  on,  stars  ever  shine  and  the  fountains  perpetually  flow? 
Wlien  you  remember  that  the  goodness  of  God  was  designed  and 
adapted  to  bring  you  to  repentance,  but  that  after  thy  hardness 
and  impenitent  heart  thou  hast  been  treasuring  up  unto  thyself 
wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath ;  oh !  when  you  think  of  God's 
distinguishing  goodness  abused  and  perverted,  can  you  remember 
God  without  being  "  troubled  "  ? 

6.  But  the  favorite  refuge  from  all  such  mental  perturbation, 
is  the  remembrance  of  God's  mercy.  Unquestionably  the  only 
solid  ground  of  peace  for  any  man  is  to  be  found  in  the  mercy  of 
God.  But  what  vague  and  incorrect  ideas  most  men  have  of 
God's  mercy !  They  attribute  to  Him  a  weak  and  sentimental 
softness  of  character  which  forbids  His  dealing  harshly  with  His 
wayward,  erring  children.  They  think  He  is  too  kind  and  gen- 
tle to  inflict  pain  upon  His  feeble  creatures,  and  this  is  what  they 
mean  by  the  mercy  of  God.  But  let  us  hear  what  God  says 
about  Himself.  "  The  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious,  long- 
suffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy 
for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression  and  sin,  and  that 
will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  "What  is  the  meaning  of 
this  ?  "  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty."  Does  this  teach  that 
He  is  too  tender-hearted  to  punish  sin  ?  Now  the  mercy  of  God 
is  revealed  only  in  the  plan  of  redemption  through  Jesus  Christ. 
He  can  be  good  to  the  sinner  without  Christ.  He  can  be  just  in 
all  His  dealings  with  him  without  Christ;  but  the  great  and 
glorious  Jehovah  cannot  be  merciful  to  him  except  through 
Jesus  Christ,  His  Son.  Hence  the  plan  of  redemption  has  been 
called  a  "  scheme  of  mercy."  Mercy  originated  and  devised  it. 
Mercy  achieved  it.  Mercy  proclaims  it.  Mercy  applies  it. 
Mercy  gives  it  effect.  If  then  you  refuse  Christ,  if  you  turn 
your  back  on  Him,  if  you  look  with  indifference  on  His  insulted 
anguish,  who  died  to  make  God's  mercy  available  for  you ;  if 
you  can  derive  comfort  from  God's  mercy  while  you  thus  scoff  at 
and  reject  God's  Son,  your  hardihood  surpasses  that  of  the  devils ; 


CONVICTION.  81 

for  while  they  believe,  thej  tremble.  God  without  Christ  has  no 
mercy  for  you.  God  without  Christ  is  a  "  consuming  fire."  If 
thus  you  think  of  God,  you  have  abundant  reason  to  go  home 
from  this  house  of  God's  mercy  soliloquizing  in  the  language  of 
the  text — "  I  remembered  God  and  was  troubled." 

"Till  God  in  human  flesh  I  see, 
My  thoughts  no  comfort  find  ; 
The  holy,  just,  and  sacred  Three 
Are  terrors  to  my  mind." 

In  conclusion  I  ask,  Are  you  content  to  think  thus  of  God 
always  ?  Are  you  willing  to  live  always  afraid  of  God  ?  Can 
you  endure  always  to  stand  in  such  an  attitude  toward  God  that 
a  calm  contemplation  of  His  character  will  fill  your  soul  with 
trouble  ?  Do  you  intend  always  to  walk  with  your  eyes  fixed  on 
the  ground  afraid  to  look  up,  lest  you  should  see  God  ?  "  We 
then  as  ambassadors  for  God,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by 
us,  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God." 
Oh !  if  you  would  only  be  reconciled  to  God  by  faith  in  His 
Son,  you  would  become  sons  of  God,  and  with  the  spirit  of  adop- 
tion you  would  cry,  "  My  Father !  My  Father !  "  And  you 
would  appropriate  the  language  of  another  Psalmist,  "  My  medi- 
tation of  Him  shall  be  sweet,  when  I  remember  Thee  upon  my 
bed  in  the  night-watches."  Then  you  will  no  longer  say  in  your 
heart,  "  There  is  no  God ";  for  you  will  have  found  a  God  of 
whom  you  may  think  without  fear,  and  whom  you  may  remem- 
ber without  being  troubled — a  God  under  the  shadow  of  whose 
wings  you  may  rejoice,  a  God  in  the  light  of  whose  countenance 
you  may  forever  bathe,  a  God  who  will  be  your  refuge  and  your 
strength,  a  very  present  help  in  trouble — a  God  in  whose  bosom 
your  weary  soul  may  eternally  repose. 


VIL 
PEACE. 

"Acquaint  now  thyself  with  Him  and  be  at  peace." — Job  xxii.  21. 

This  morning  I  tried  to  show  you  that  a  calm  and  deliberate 
analysis  of  the  character  of  God  is  adapted  to  produce  trouble  in 
the  mind  of  the  natural  man.  I  hope  those  who  heard  me  were 
80  troubled  that  they  are  now  inquiring,  How  shall  we  get  rid 
of  this  uneasiness  of  mind  ?  How  shall  we  be  able  to  remember 
God  without  being  troubled  ?  To  such  an  inquirer  I  answer  in 
the  language  of  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  "  Acquaint  now  thyself 
with  Him  and  be  at  peace," 

Two  things  are  implied  in  this  utterance : 

1.  That  a  distant  knowledge  of  God,  hke  that  to  which  I  re- 
ferred this  morning,  can  never  be  other  than  a  source  of  dis- 
quietude. 

2.  That  a  man  may  obtain  such  a  personal  knowledge  of  God 
as  will  dispel  his  fears  forever  and  give  him  peace. 

I  desire,  this  evening,  to  introduce  you,  as  it  were,  to  God ;  to 
bring  you,  so  to  speak,  into  personal  contact  with  Him. 

Philip  said  to  Jesus,  "  Show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us." 
Jesus  replied,  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet 
hast  thou  not  known  me,  Philip  ?  He  that  hatli  seen  me  hath 
seen  the  Father." 

Before  Jesus  Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  a  few  favored  individ- 
uals had  been  personally  acquainted  with  God.  Abraham  had 
interviews  with  Him,  and  was  called  by  God  himself,  "my 
friend."  Moses  had  met  Him  in  the  mount,  and  received  from 
Him  the  law.  Others  had  heard  His  voice,  and  in  other  ways 
had  held  direct  communication  with  Him.  But  all  these  were 
(82) 


PEACE.  83 

transient,  brief  seasons  of  intercourse,  which  only  deepened  the 
awe  felt  for  the  ineffable  majesty  of  Jehovah.  The  vast  mass  of 
the  chosen  people  had  no  personal  acquaintance  with  God,  and 
the  pious  Israelite  felt,  like  Philip,  that  a  sight  of  the  Father 
would  suffice  him.  And  now  that  Christ  has  come  in  the  flesh, 
whoever  knows  Him,  from  henceforth  knows  God  and  has  seen 
Him,  For  He  is  the  brightness  of  the  Father's  glory  and  the 
express  image  of  His  person.  If,  then,  Christ  is  God,  we  shall 
find  that  an  analysis  of  His  character  will  correspond  in  every 
respect  with  the  analysis  we  have  made  of  the  character  of  God. 

1.  Christ  was  a  holy  being.  "  For  Him  no  friend  ever  apolo- 
gized, and  no  enemy  convinced  Him  of  sin.  Infidelity  itself  has 
never  ventured  to  cast  any  reproach  upon  His  name,  which  is 
above  every  name,  full  of  an  ideal  light."  Yet  this  perfectly 
holy  man,  instead  of  repelling,  attracted  sinners  to  Him  in 
crowds.  So  winning  were  His  ways  that  it  was  a  cause  of  re- 
proach to  Him  that  "  this  man  receiveth  sinners  and  eateth  with 
them." 

2.  In  like  manner,  it  may  be  shown  that  Clmst,  when  He 
shall  sit  upon  the  throne  of  His  glory,  will  sit  as  an  infinitely  just 
Judge,  who  shall  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead  at  His  appearing 
and  His  kingdom. 

3.  So,  too,  it  is  equally  clear  from  Scripture,  that  Christ  is  in- 
finite in  knowledge.  He  knew  the  thoughts  and  the  hearts  of 
all  men.  The  woman  of  Samaria  who  met  Him  at  Jacob's  well, 
said :  "  Come,  see  a  man  which  told  me  all  things  that  I  ever 
did."  "  He  needed  not  that  any  should  testify  of  man,  for  He 
knew  what  was  in  man." 

4.  He  was  all-powerful.  He  demonstrated  His  omnipotence 
over  the  elements  of  nature ;  for  the  winds  and  the  seas  obeyed 
Him :  over  the  diseases  and  calamities  of  human  nature ;  for  at 
His  word,  the  lame  walked,  the  deaf  heard,  the  lepers  were 
cleansed,  and  the  dead  came  to  life. 

He  claimed  the  power  to  summon  twelve  legions  of  angels  to 
rescue  Him  from  His  foes,  and  declared  that  all  power  was  given 
to  Him  in  heaven  and  on  earth. 

Here,  then,  is  God  in  human  flesh,  holy,  just,  omniscient,  all- 


84  PEACE. 

powerful :  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  by  whom  and  for 
whom  all  things  were  created. 

This  God  I  present  to  you  and  say,  "  Acquaint  now  thyself 
with  Him  and  be  at  peace." 

You  may  ask  in  what  respect  you  are  better  off  in  becoming 
acquainted  wdth  God  in  Christ  than  you  were  in  remembering 
the  invisible  God,  if  the  man  Clirist  Jesus  has  all  the  attri- 
butes of  the  great  and  glorious  God  of  the  Old  Testament.  To 
this  I  answer  that  the  very  object  of  the  mission  of  Christ  into 
the  world  was  to  reveal  God  as  a  God  of  love.  This  God,  holy, 
just,  and  powerful,  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give  His  only  begot- 
ten Son  to  die  for  the  salvation  of  men. 

You  need  to  be  continually  reminded  that  God  does  not  and 
never  did  hate  our  race.  You  cannot  too  often  be  told  that  God 
was  not  pacified  toward  sinners  by  the  interposition  of  Christ. 
There  was  no  opposition  between  God  the  Father  and  God  the 
Son.  The  plan  of  redemption  originated  in  the  loving  heart  of 
the  Triune  God.  The  love  of  God  the  Father  was  the  same 
love  that  thrilled  in  the  heart  of  God  the  Son  and  God  the 
Holy  Ghost.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  Gospel :  Peace  on 
earth  and  good- will  toward  men.  Whose  "  good-will  "  ?  Why, 
God's  good-will.  Gospel  means  good  neios.  You  all  know 
what  is  meant  by  good  news.  If  you  have  been  waiting  to 
hear  from  an  absent  child  whose  life  has  been  despaired  of ;  or 
if  you  have  been  startled  by  the  intelligence  that  an  accident  has 
happened  to  the  train  that  was  carrying  your  loved  one  to  a  dis- 
tant city,  you  remember  the  thrill  of  joy  you  experienced  when 
the  telegraph  announced  that  the  child  was  getting  well,  or  that 
the  dear  one  had  escaped  unhurt.  Precisely  similar  is  the  emo- 
tion when  you  can  be  made  to  realize  that  God  does  not  hate, 
but  really  loves  you.  The  whole  life  of  Jesus  was  a  reiteration 
of  the  song  of  the  angels  at  His  birth,  "  Peace  on  earth  and 
good-will  toward  men." 

He  held  in  His  hand  the  sceptre  of  omnipotence ;  and  He 
swayed  it  never  to  destroy,  but  always  to  bless.  Virtue  went 
forth  from  Him  to  those  who  might  only  touch  the  hem  of  His 
garment.     He  was  the  angel  of  consolation  to  every  saddened 


PEACE.  85 

home  that  He  entered.  In  all  the  forms  in  which  it  was  possi- 
ble did  God,  "  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  display  His  love  for  men. 
But  while  the  testimony  of  His  words  and  the  evidence  of  His 
works  of  beneficence  were  cumulative  proofs,  the  demonstration 
that  God  loves  men  was  not  complete  until  the  final  act  of  His 
great  heroic  life.  Other  men  have  been  philanthropists  and 
benefactors  of  the  race.  But  "scarcely  for  a  righteous  man 
will  one  die,  yet,  peradventure,  for  a  good  man,  some  would 
even  dare  to  die;  but  God  commendeth  His  love  to  us  in  that, 
while  we  were  yet  sinners,  Christ  died  for  us."  Christ,  who  is 
God,  dies,  suffers  for  sinners,  on  account  of  their  sins.  He 
in  whom  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  dwelt  bodily,  sacrifices 
Himself  in  the  agonies  of  a  hmnan  death,  that  man,  though  a 
sinner,  may  live  forever.  Do  you  ask  me  to  explain  how  God 
can  suffer?  I  answer  that  it  is  a  thing  which  cannot  be  ex- 
plained. It  is  a  matter  of  simple  revelation  to  be  believed  with- 
out explanation  that  the  eternal  Son  of  God  "  entered  into  vital 
union  with  human  flesh,  in  order  that  the  Godhead  might  pre- 
sent a  vulnerable  side  to  the  powers  of  evil  for  suffering  in  life 
and  for  the  suffering  of  death."  It  is  enough  for  you  to  know 
that  God  loved  you  enough  to  die  for  you,  though  you  may 
never  be  able  to  understand  how  God  could  suffer. 

JN^ow  this  is  the  God  you  need  to  become  acquainted  with,  be- 
cause if  He  loved  you  to  such  a  degree  as  this,  you  may  expect 
to  get  from  Him  everything  necessary  to  give  you  peace.  AVhy 
need  you  try  to  go  back  of  Him  to  think  of  another  and  differ- 
ent manifestation  of  God  ?  Is  He  not  the  very  God  whom  your 
fallen,  helpless,  sinful  nature  demands?  Is  there  any  one  of  the 
thousand  questions  that  torture  the  human  bosom  with  anxiety 
that  He  does  not  answer  satisfactorily  ?  Do  you  ask.  Is  there  a 
life  beyond  the  grave  ?  He  answers,  "  Yes,  I  am  the  resurrec- 
tion and  the  life."  Is  there  a  place  where  I  may  meet  my  lost 
ones  who  have  gone  before  ?  "  Yes,  in  my  Father's  house  are 
many  mansions."  But  can  any  one  know  the  Father  ?  "  Yes, 
having  seen  Me,  from  henceforth  ye  have  seen  Him  and 
know  Him."  Does  God  regard  my  daily  wants  ?  "  Yes,  your 
Father  knoweth  what  things  ye  have  need  of."     Does  He  who 


86  PEACE. 

made  me  care  anything  for  me  ?  "  Yes,  He  has  actually  num- 
bered the  hairs  of  your  head."  Is  it  of  any  use  to  pray  to  Him? 
"  Yes,  ask,  and  ye  shall  receive."  Can  I  expect  forgiveness  for 
my  sins  ?  "  Yes,  the  Son  of  Man  hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive 
sins."  But  how  am  I  to  know  that  this  power  will  be  extended 
to  me  ?  "  Because  whosoever  beheveth  in  Him  shall  never  perish. 
If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  Me  and  drink."  But  how 
am  I  to  know  but  that  these  things  were  intended  only  for  the 
persons  who  heard  Him  and  constituted  His  disciples?  Hear 
His  answer :  "  ^Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone,  but  for  them  also 
who  shall  believe  on  me  through  their  word." 

Now,  it  is  clear  that  if  you  can  become  personally  acquainted 
with  a  God  who  uttered  such  words  of  cheer  as  these,  you  will 
be  at  peace. 

Among  the  ancient  Eomans  it  was  part  of  their  religion  to 
cherish  faith  in  an  inferior  class  of  deities  whom  tliey  called 
Lares.  These  Lares  were  originally  human  beings,  men  like  us 
in  every  respect,  who  had  lived  upon  the  earth,  and  becoming 
pure  spirits  after  death,  loved  to  hover  around  the  dwellings  they 
once  inhabited,  to  watch  over  their  safety.  Having  been  once 
partakers  of  our  mortal  condition,  they  were  supposed  to  know 
better  the  quarters  from  which  to  expect  danger,  and  what 
assistance  to  render.  Images  of  these  Lares  were  kept  in 
every  house,  in  a  little  private  chapel  consecrated  to  their  wor- 
ship. They  were  sometimes  called  "  household  gods."  This 
beautiful  conception  of  the  heathen  mind  was  only  an  uncon- 
scious expression  of  the  yearning  of  our  human  nature  after  a 
god  with  human  sympathies  and  a  god  near  to  us.  The  God 
with  whom  I  want  you  to  become  acquainted  is  such  a  God. 
His  name  is  Immanuel,  which  means  God  with  us — a  God  who 
has  lived  on  this  earth,  who  has  trodden  all  the  paths  of  human 
BoiTow,  who  was  tempted  to  commit  every  sin  you  ever  com- 
mitted, and  who,  because  He  was  compassed  with  infirmity,  can 
have  compassion  on  the  ignorant,  and  on  them  that  are  out  of 
the  way. 

Now  hear  what  He  says :  "  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep 


PEACE.  g7 

mj  words,  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will  come  and 
make  our  abode  with  him."  He  will  be  a  "  household  God  "  to 
you,  living  under  the  same  roof  with  you.  This  is  no  fanciful 
idea  in  regard  to  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  house  and 
in  the  chamber.  This  is  the  true  doctrine  of  the  "  real  presence." 
There  are  many  blessed  homes  where  Jesus  is  a  constant  guest. 
There  are  many  Christians  in  this  house  who  will  tell  you  that 
they  talk  with  Him  every  day  and  every  hour.  There  are  those 
who,  having  heard  Him  knock,  have  opened  the  door,  and  He 
has  come  in  and  supped  with  them.  The  language  of  their 
heart  is : 

"  Abide  with  me,  fast  falls  the  eventide; 
The  darkness  deepens ;  Lord,  with  me  abide ; 
When  otber  helpers  fail  and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  oh !  abide  with  me. 

**  I  need  Thy  presence  every  passing  hour. 
What  but  Thy  grace  can  foil  the  tempter's  power  ? 
Who,  like  Thyself,  my  guide  aad  stay  can  be  ? 
Thi'ough  cloud  and  sunshine,  oh !  abide  with  me." 

He  is  the  Immanuel,  the  God  with  us,  with  whom  you  must 
become  acquainted,  if  you  would  be  at  peace.  But  how  ?  You 
cannot  see  Him.  You  cannot  hear  His  voice.  Here  comes  in 
the  office  which  Faith  has  to  perform — faith  which  is  the  evi- 
dence of  things  not  seen.  It  is  the  grace  which  brings  the  soul 
into  personal  contact  with  an  unseen  Saviour,  "  in  whom  though 
now  we  see  Him  not,  yet  believing,  we  rejoice  with  joy  unspeak- 
able and  full  of  glory." 

It  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  modern  chemistry  by  which  the 
artist  may  impress  upon  a  plate  of  glass  a  beautiful  portrait  invis- 
ible to  the  ordinary  observer.  But  he  who  knows  the  secret 
breathes  upon  it  mth  the  warm  breath  of  love,  and  lo !  the  image 
of  the  loved  one  stands  out  in  bold  relief.  Thus  it  is  that  Christ 
manifests  Himself  to  those  who  love  Him  as  He  does  not  unto 
the  world.  This  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them  that  fear  Him. 
Do  not  call  this  fanaticism.  It  is  the  blessed  exjDcrience  of  thou- 
sands. Even  young  children  have  it.  A  little  girl  was  lying  in 
bed  with  a  disease  that  had  made  her  blind.     Her  teacher  said, 


88  PEACE. 

"  Are  you  blind,  Mary  ? "  "  Yes,"  she  replied,  "  but  1  can  see 
Jesus."  "  How  do  you  see  Jesus  ?  "  "  With  the  eye  of  my 
heart."  It  is  irrational  to  discredit  the  testimony  of  good  men 
that  they  hold  personal  intercourse  with  Jesus.  Ray  Palmer  has 
embodied  the  experience  of  every  true  Christian  in  the  follow- 
ing hues  • 

"  Jesus!  these  eyes  have  never  seen 

That  radiant  form  of  Thine ; 
The  veil  of  sense  hangs  dark  between 

Thy  blessed  face  and  mine. 

*'  Yet  though  I  have  not  seen,  and  still 
Must  rest  in  faith  alone, 
I  love  Thee,  dearest  Lord !  and  will, 
Unseen,  but  not  unknown." 

"  Acquaint  now  thyself  with  God,"  "  manifest  in  the  flesh," 
"  and  be  at  peace."  I  close  this  discourse  with  a  warning  from 
one  of  the  greatest  of  American  preachers.  "  Bear  in  mind  that 
the  grand  anti-Christian  movement  of  our  day  is  not  open  and 
bold  attack,  but  a  flank  movement  to  get  into  possession  of  the 
citadel  of  faith,  which  for  near  two  thousand  years  has  proved 
impregnable  to  the  gates  of  hell.  Discovering  that  humanity 
must  have  a  gospel  to  satisfy  its  longings,  and  that  therefore  the 
assaults  of  open  Atheism  and  Deism  were  unsuccessful  from  the 
disregard  of  the  necessities  of  humanity,  the  assault  by  the  infi- 
dehty  of  our  age  is  chiefly  by  strategy  to  substitute  '  another  gos- 
pel which  is  not  another,'  but  really  no  gospel  at  all.  And  the 
favorite  strategy  of  all  is  to  impose  upon  the  people  a  gospel  of 
Jesus  with  the  part  of  Jesus  left  out.  And  while  it  may  seem  to 
be  Christianity,  and  to  construct  an  attractive  form  of  the  Gospel 
for  literary  men,  yet  in  the  day  that  sorrow  and  trouble  of  con- 
science shall  drive  you  in  search  of  a  gospel  to  rest  your  soul 
upon,  this  will  surely  prove  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision.  '  Other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid  in  Christ  Jesus,' 
liowever  brilhant  the  genius  and  profound  the  reasoning  powers 
of  him  that  attempts  it.  And  any  foundation  that  pretends  to 
be  in  Christ  Jesus,  while  ignoring  His  true  Divinity,  is  but  a 
cheat  and  delusion  of  the  human  spirit."  "  Acquaint  now  thyself 
with  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  be  at  peace." 


VIII. 

PAKDOK 

"For  Thy  name's  sake,  0  Lord,  pardon  mine  iniquity;  for  it  is  great."— 
Psalm  xxv.  11. 

I  DESiKE  to  present  the  subject  suggested  by  this  text  with  the 
greatest  simplicity  and  plainness  of  speech. 

As  is  evident  from  what  follows  this  prayer  of  David,  he  was 
in  great  distress.  He  says  he  is  desolate  and  afflicted,  that  the 
troubles  of  his  heart  are  enlarged,  and  that  he  is  suffering  afflic- 
tion and  pain.  His  troubles,  whatever  they  were,  had  brought 
him  to  a  deep  conviction  of  sin  ;  and  this  was  a  cause  of  greater 
anguish  than  all  the  outward  calamities  that  had  overtaken  him. 
There  is  no  greater  suffering  of  which  the  human  spirit  is  sus- 
ceptible than  that  which  accompanies  a  profound  conviction  of 
sin.  "  The  spirit  of  a  man  will  sustain  his  infirmity,  but  a 
wounded  spirit  who  can  bear  ? "  In  his  grief  he  flees  to  God. 
There  is  no  other  refuge  for  any  sin-sick  soul.  Unless  it  can  get 
assurance  of  pardon  it  must  be  miserable.  The  reason  so  many 
really  great  sinners  are  comparatively  cheerful  and  happy  is  that 
they  have  lost  sight  of  their  sins  and  guilt,  and  their  minds  are 
occupied  with  other  things  that  crowd  out  all  serious  reflections. 

It  is  only  when  some  faithful  l^athan  comes,  saying,  "  Thou 
art  the  man,"  and  awakes  their  consciences,  that  they  see  their 
sins  in  all  their  naked  deformity ;  and  then,  for  the  time,  they 
can  see  nothing  else,  and  they  say  with  David,  "  My  sin  is  ever 
before  me."  Then  they  have  no  rest.  New  conceptions  of  the 
purity  and  breadth  of  God's  law,  of  His  inexorable  justice,  of 
their  own  ill-desert,  and  of  their  lost  and  helpless  condition,  arise 
in  their  minds,  and  they  cry  out  and  roar  all  the  day  long.  It  is 
a  happy  thing  for  us,  that  while  we  share  the  experiences  of 

(89) 


90  PARDON. 

David,  he  was  divinely  guided  in  framing  his  prayers  for  deliv- 
erance ;  so  that  in  adopting  his  language,  we  are  using  words  put 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  upon  his  lips ;  and  may  rest  assured  that  all 
his  utterances  convey  lessons  of  Divine  instruction  recorded  for 
our  beueiit. 

Observe,  then,  the  extraordinary  plea  for  pardon  which  he  pre- 
sents before  God.  When  we  plead  for  pardon  from  a  fellow- 
being,  it  is  our  endeavor  to  palliate  our  offence,  to  seek  to  make 
it  appear  less  heinous  than  it  seems  to  be.  When  the  friends  of 
a  condemned  criminal  apply  for  executive  clemency  to  the  Gov- 
ernor, they  hunt  uj)  all  the  extenuating  circumstances  to  show 
that  the  man  was  not  as  bad  as  he  seemed  to  be  at  the  time  he 
was  senteuced. 

How  different  David's  plea  :  "  O  Lord,  pardon  mine  iniquity, 
because  it  is  greatP  I  am  not  a  little  sinner,  but  a  great  sinner. 
I  have  broken  all  Thy  commandments.  In  me  there  is  nothing 
good.  Pardon  mine  iniquity,  for  it  is  great,  l^ow,  as  no  man 
not  divinely  guided  would  ever  have  thought  of  presenting  such 
a  plea  as  this,  we  must  conclude  that  the  Holy  Spirit  dictated 
this  prayer,  because  God  will  admit  it  as  a  valid  plea  offered  by 
any  sinner  who  comes  to  Him  for  pardon. 

Observe,  in  the  next  place,  the  ground  upon  which  he  bases 
his  plea.  "  For  Thy  name's  sake."  David  had  not,  as  we  have, 
a  clear  and  full  revelation  of  the  plan  of  redemption  through 
Jesus  Christ ;  and  he  could  not  have  explained  the  rationale  of 
the  mode  by  which  God  can  be  just  and  be  a  justifier  of  the 
ungodly ;  but  he  looked  back  over  the  history  of  tlie  chosen 
people,  and  saw  that  in  all  His  dealings  with  them  God's  mercy 
had  been  conspicuous.  He  remembered  that  when  Moses  had 
besought  God  to  show  him  His  glory,  He  had  announced  Himself 
by  this  name :  "  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious ; 
keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression, 
and  sin."  And  he  reminds  God  of  His  great  name,  and  ground- 
ing his  plea  on  the  character  of  God  himself,  as  revealed  of  old, 
appeals  to  Him  to  be  consistent  with  Himself,  and  for  the  sake 
of  the  glory  of  His  own  great  name  to  answer  his  prayers  for 
acceptance.     He  makes  no  promise  of  amendment.    He  derives 


PARDON.  91 

no  hope  from  anything  lie  can  do  in  the  future.  He  feels  that 
he  can  make  no  reparation  to  the  broken  law ;  that  he  cannot 
atone  for  the  sins  he  has  connnitted.  He  cannot  blot  out  his 
past  record,  and  he  casts  himself  solely  on  the  mercy  of  God. 
Although  he  had  but  a  dim  insight  into  the  means  of  pardon 
through  the  righteonsness  of  the  Messiah  to  come,  yet  he  prayed 
up  to  the  light  which  he  had,  believing  that  God  would  graciously 
incline  His  ear. 

The  great  doctrine  which  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  inspired  this 
prayei-,  would  have  us  derive  from  it  is  this  :  That  if  a  sinner 
applies  in  the  right  way  for  pardon,  the  greatness  or  enormity  of 
his  sin  constitutes  no  obstacle  in  the  way  of  his  receiving  pardon. 

The  question  of  the  greatest  importance  in  this  connection  is, 
what  is  the  right  way  in  which  to  approach  God  to  sue  for  par- 
don ?     I  answer : 

1.  There  must  be  a  consciousness  of  real  need  of  mercy.  For 
those  who  do  not  experience  this  deep  necessity  of  a  Saviour, 
there  is  practically  no  Saviour. 

No  man  ever  calls  out  for  help  unless  lie  is  conscious  of  the 
helplessness  of  his  case.  He  must  realize  that  he  is  a  wretch  un- 
done without  the  interposition  of  a  Divine  helper  to  save  him. 

2.  He  must  feel  that  he  does  not  deserve  any  mercy,  that  he  is 
totally  unworthy  to  receive  anything  from  God  but  the  merited 
punishment  of  bis  sins.  This  sense  of  unworthiness,  and  this 
self-condemnation,  were  what  characterized  the  publican  who 
would  not  so  much  as  lift  up  his  eyes  toward  heaven,  but  stood 
smiting  on  his  breast  and  saying,  "  God,  be  merciful  to  me,  a 
sinner." 

3.  The  man  who  truly  comes  to  God  for  pardon,  must  totally 
abandon  all  reliance  upon  himself.  This  renunciation  of  self-de- 
pendence is  the  most  difficult  of  all  lessons  to  learn.  If  the  sin- 
ner could  only  be  induced  at  first  and  at  once  to  believe  that 
nothing  he  can  do  will  render  his  offended  Maker  more  placable 
than  He  is  already,  more  than  half  the  work  of  his  salvation 
would  be  accomplished.  But  he  cannot  divest  himself  of  the 
idea  that  he  must  have  some  hand  in  the  matter.  Oh,  if  I  could 
only  convince  you  that  the  work  of  your  redemption  can  m  no 


92  PARDON. 

way  be  aided  by  your  own  efforts,  I  should  know  that  it  would 
not  be  many  days  or  hours  before  you  would  be  rejoicing  in 
having  found  peace  with  God.  But  as  long  as  you  undertake  to 
be  your  own  saviour,  how  can  Christ  be  of  any  use  to  you  ? 
Paul  says  Christ  is  of  none  effect  to  those  who  seek  for  justifica- 
tion by  the  works  of  the  law.  David  evidently  derived  no  hope 
from  his  performance  of  even  those  ceremonial  rites  which  were 
prescribed  by  God  in  the  worship  of  the  sanctuary.  He  says : 
"  Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice,  else  would  I  give  it ;  Thou  delightest 
not  in  burnt-offerings."  As  if  he  had  said,  There  is  nothing  I 
would  not  do  to  gain  Thy  favor,  no  costly  oblation  or  expensive 
sacrifice  I  would  not  offer ;  but  I  know  all  this  would  be  unavail- 
ing to  propitiate  the  offended  Majesty  of  heaven. 

"  Just  as  I  am,  and  waiting  not, 
To  rid  my  soul  of  one  dark  blot, 
To  Thee,  whose  blood  can  cleanse  each  spot, 
O  Lamb  of  God,  I  come." 

4.  The  fulfilment  of  this  negative  condition  in  a  genuine  ap- 
plication to  God  for  pardon  w^ill  inevitably  lead  to  the  fulfilment 
of  a  fourth  and  positive  condition  ;  viz.,  a  coming  to  Him  in  the 
name  of  Christ.  This  coming  to  God  through  Christ,  is  simply 
coming  to  Christ  himself.  The  forms  in  which  this  act  of  the 
soul  is  described  in  Scripture  are  very  various,  and  all  equally  ex- 
pressive of  the  idea  of  going  out  of  one's  self  to  find  help  in 
another.  Looking  to,  as  the  dying  Israelite  looked  at  the  brazen 
serpent  in  the  wilderness ;  receiving,  as  one  who  receives  with 
pleasm'e  the  friend  who  knocks  at  his  door ;  eating,  as  one  appro- 
priates food  for  his  nourishment ;  coming  to,  as  one  goes  to  meet 
one  whom  he  loves,  or  seeks  one  in  whose  ability  to  relieve  him  he 
has  confidence ;  embracing,  as  one  throws  his  arms  around  a 
strong  swimmer  who  has  leaped  into  the  water  to  save  him  ;  flee- 
ing unto,  as  the  Israelite  fled  to  the  city  of  refuge  to  escape  from 
the  blood  avenger ;  laying  hold  of,  as  one  grasps  a  friendly  hand 
stretched  out  to  him  in  the  hour  of  peril — all  these  are  only 
strong  figures,  intended  by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  convey  to  our 
minds  what  is  meant  by  believing  on  Christ  to  the  salvation  of 


PARDON.  93 

tbe  soul.  They  are  intended  to  turn  the  mind  of  the  sinner 
away  from  himself,  and  to  encom-age  him  to  put  his  trust  in  One 
mighty  to  save. 

Ah  !  but  just  here  lies  his  diflSculty.  He  may  be  convinced  of  his 
y  ill-desert,  his  helplessness,  and  his  inability  to  do  aught  to  secure 
the  favor  of  God  ;  but  he  finds  it  hard  to  believe  that  this  simple 
act  of  reliance  on  Christ  can  secure  the  boon  of  pardon,  and 
bring  peace  to  his  tortured  soul.  This  difficulty  experienced  by 
every  aw^akened  sinner,  God  foresaw,  and  to  meet  it  has  conde- 
scended to  set  forth  in  every  possible  form  the  great  doctrine  that 
He  does  not  desire  the  death  of  the  sinner,  and  that  the  remedy 
He  offers  him  in  Christ  is  the  very  remedy  which,  being  pro- 
vided by  Himself,  must  be  the  only  one  adapted  to  meet  the 
necessities  of  the  case.  Hence  all  the  lessons  of  His  "W^ord,  all 
the  ministrations  of  prophet  and  priest  under  the  Old  Testament, 
and  of  Apostle  and  Evangelist  under  the  New,  are  aimed  at  the 
one  single  object  of  inducing  the  sinner  to  put  his  confidence  in 
One  mighty  to  save.  The  Prophet  Isaiah  looking  down  over  the 
lapse  of  centuries,  and  catching  a  vivid  view  of  the  coming  Mes- 
siah as  He  makes  triumphal  progress  on  His  mission  of  redeem- 
ing mercy,  cries  out,  "Who  is  this  that  cometh  from  Edom,  with 
dyed  garments  from  Bozrah  ?  This  that  is  glorious  in  his  ap- 
parel, travelling  in  the  greatness  of  his  strength  ? "  And  the 
answer  comes  back  to  him,  as  if  uttered  from  the  cross  of  His 
triumphant  agony,  "I  that  speak  in  righteousness,  mighty  to 
save."  Yes,  it  is  because  He  is  mighty  to  save  that  every  sinner 
may,  without  hesitation,  put  his  trust  in  Him.  And  the  Apostle 
Paul,  with  sublime  confidence  in  the  divine  power  of  the  great 
Kedeemer  to  whom  he  owed  his  own  deliverance,  declares,  "  This 
is  a  faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief  "; 
while  the  Apostle  John,  taking  up  the  words  of  the  glorious 
evangel,  extends  the  offer  of  pardon  to  all  mankind  in  the  cath- 
ohc  utterance,  "  And  He  is  the  propitiation  not  for  our  sins  only, 
but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 

Who  is  this  Jesus  that  invites  all  men  to  come  to  Him  ?  Wlio 
is  this  man  that  challenges  the  world  to  heave  its  mighty  mass  of 


94  PARDON. 

guilt  upon  His  shoulders  ?  "WTiicli  of  the  angels  would  dare  ex- 
pose himself  to  the  perils  of  bearing  such  a  heavy  load  ?  It  is 
none  other  than  He  upon  whom  God  laid  our  help,  mighty  to 
save ;  a  Being  who  had  no  sins  of  His  own  to  bear ;  a  Being 
above  all  law,  who  had  no  obedience  to  render ;  a  Being  of  infi- 
nite dignity,  whose  voluntary  obedience  outweighs  our  disobedi- 
ence, and  whose  voluntary  death  for  us  more  than  pays  the  ])en- 
alty  due  to  a  world  of  sinful  men.  Take  the  sins  of  all  the 
saints,  and  also  all  the  sins  of  all  the  sinners  in  the  world, 
and  lay  them  on  Him,  and  you  could  not  exhaust  His  power 
to  bear  them.  Lifting  His  mighty  shoulders  under  the  incum- 
bent load,  He  would  not  "  fail  nor  be  discouraged,"  but  "  cast 
them  all  into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  Can  you  not  afford  to 
trust  a  Saviour  like  this  ?  Are  you  alone,  of  all  the  world  of 
sinners,  so  vUe  a  transgressor  that  "  He  whom  God  has  highly  ex- 
alted with  His  right  hand  to  be  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour  for  to 
give  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  sins,"  cannot  reach  the  ex- 
tremity of  your  case  ? 

I  tell  you  that  if  you  fulfil  the  conditions  which  I  have  been 
explaining,  the  greatness  of  your  sin  cannot  stand  in  the  way  of 
your  pardon. 

One  of  the  most  common  forms  of  unbelief  directly  injected 
into  the.  mind  by  Satan  may  be  expressed  thus  :  "  It  is  true  that 
Christ  died  for  sinners,  but  not  for  me.  Mine  is  a  peculiar  case ; 
there  is  no  one  sinner  whose  state  is  like  mine."  Therefore 
when  I  offer  you  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Saviour,  I  know  you  say  to 
yourself,  "  Now  that  man  does  not  know  what  sort  of  a  sinner  I 
am  ;  if  he  did,  he  would  see  that  Christ  does  not  meet  my  par- 
ticular case." 

One  of  you  is  saying  :  "  I  am  an  old  sinner ;  I  have  slighted 
the  Gospel  all  my  life  ;  I  fear  God  will  not  accept  the  poor  ser- 
vice which  I  can  render  Him  during  the  remnant  of  my  misera- 
ble, wasted  life." 

Well,  to  this  I  reply  that  God  does  not  accept  men  for  the  sake 
of  the  work  they  do  for  Him  ;  He  saves  men  for  the  sake  of 
glorifying  His  own  abounding  mercy.  And  in  order  to  show 
that  age  is  no  obstacle  in  His  way,  He  has  recorded  in  the  Bible 


PARDON.  95 

the  story  of  tlie  conversion  and  pardon  of  a  very  old  sinner. 
Manasseli  was  a  very  wicked  king,  even  down  to  old  age.  An 
idolater,  a  man  of  violence  and  blood,  in  Lis  old  age  lie  repented, 
was  pardoned,  and  saved.  Old  men  are  less  likely  to  turn  to 
God  than  young  men  ;  but  if  they  do,  their  age  and  their  accu- 
mulated crimes  are  no  impediment  to  their  acceptance. 

Another  is  saying  :  "  I  have  sinned  with  peculiar  aggravations 
to  my  guilt.  I  once  was  numbered  among  Christians ;  my  name 
was  on  a  church  roll ;  I  often  led  God's  people  in  prayer ;  but, 
alas !  I  disgraced  my  profession ;  I  am  a  backshder ;  I  never 
pray,  nor  read  my  Bible,  nor  go  to  church,  nor  do  any  pious  act ; 
I  have  cast  God  away,  and  I  fear  He  has  cast  me  off  forever." 
But  you  are  not  the  first  backslider,  and  you  need  not  remain  a 
backslider  forever.  "  Take  with  you  words  and  turn  to  the  Lord 
and  say  unto  Him,  Take  away  all  iniquity  and  receive  us  gra- 
ciously." Hear  what  He  says  in  answer  to  this  prayer  :  "  I  will 
heal  yoiu"  backsliding ;  I  will  love  you  freely."  If  you  were 
mistaken  in  thinking  you  were  a  Christian  before,  and  never  did 
truly  come  to  Him,  come  now,  and  you  will  see  how  freely  Jesus 
can  forgive. 

Here,  perhaps,  is  another,  some  trusting  woman,  betrayed  in 
the  innocence  and  ignorance  of  her  youth,  and  cast  off  by  her 
father  and  mother,  and  abandoned  to  "  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
wicked,"  and  only  those  who  have  experienced  them  can  tell 
how  cruel  they  are.  She  has  come  here  and  heard  of  Jesus,  and 
she  wants  to  love  Him  and  cast  herself  on  His  bosom  ;  but  she  is 
"  such  a  wicked  sinner "  and  "  knows  herself  to  be  the  vilest  of 
the  vile,"  and  "  don't  see  how  He  ever  can  forgive  her." 

Oh,  let  me  tell  you,  it  is  because  I  got  your  letter  and  did  not 
know  how  else  to  answer  it,  that  I  am  preaching  this  plain  sermon 
for  you  this  afternoon.* 

*  This  sermon,  preached  in  the  afternoon  service  in  the  Music  Hall  in  Cin- 
cinnati, was  occasioned  by  Dr.  Pratt's  receiving  an  anonymous  letter  from 
"  a  woman  who  was  a  sinner,"  evidently  under  deep  conviction  of  sin,  but 
whom  he  could  only  answer  in  this  public  way.  Like  the  woman  in  the 
Bible,  nothing  more  was  heard  of  this  woman,  but  may  we  not  hope  that  the 
same  Spirit  who  prompted  the  letter  also  led  her  to  hear  its  answer  and 
accept  her  Saviour  ? 


96  PARDON. 

Don't  you  remember  the  story  of  the  "  woman  of  the  city  who 
was  a  sinner,"  who  wept  on  the  feet  of  Jesus,  and  wiped  His  feet 
with  the  hairs  of  her  head  ?  You  remember  His  loving  words 
to  her,  how  He  said,  "  Her  sins,  which  are  many,  are  forgiven." 
Ah  !  if  you  will  only  truly  come  to  Him,  you  need  not  fear  that 
He  will  repel  you. 

-  We  never  read  anything  more  about  this  woman  who  was  a 
sinner ;  she  sunk  into  social  obscurity,  and  probably  never  was 
recognized  by  respectable  society  in  her  city  ;  but  what  of  that  ? 
She  was  forgiven.  And  now  she  is  in  the  society  of  Jesus  and 
among  the  spirits  of  the  just  made  perfect  in  heaven.  This 
Gospel  which  I  am  commissioned  to  preach  would  be  a  failure  if 
it  could  not  avail  for  such  a  case  as  yours. 

Thus  I  might  describe  every  class  of  sinners  in  this  Hall,  and 
show  it  is  adapted  to  all.  Oh  !  then  stay  no  longer  away  from 
Him  who  came  to  call  not  the  righteous,  but  sinners  to  repent- 
ance. With  all  your  guilt  and  helplessness  fall  down  at  His  feet, 
crying  out,  "  For  Thy  name's  sake,  O  Lord  !  pardon  mine  ini- 
quity, for  it  is  great." 


IX. 

LOOK  AND  LIVE. 

"  And  as  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the 
Son  of  Man  be  lifted  up;  that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life." — John  iii.  14,  15. 

There  are  some  things  so  vast  that  the  words  which  stand  for 
them  do  not,  when  uttered,  produce  the  conception  of  them  in 
our  minds.  Take  the  word  ocean  as  an  example.  How  few  of 
its  marks  do  we  reahze  in  consciousness  when  we  utter  the  word ! 
Its  vast  extent ;  its  bottomless  depth ;  its  currents ;  its  tide- 
waves  ;  its  storms ;  its  monsoons ;  its  cyclones ;  its  typhoons ;  its 
coral  islands  and  reefs ;  its  icebergs ;  its  immense  meadows  of 
seaweed ;  its  deep  abysses  teeming  with  animal  life ;  its  sea- 
urchins,  and  starfishes  with  their  thousand  strange  fornis  and 
tints;  its  yellow,  green,  and  purple- striped  limpets;  its  jelly- 
fishes,  floating  softly  like  spirits  of  the  deep;  its  cuttle-fish, 
decked  in  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow ;  all  its  wondrous  fauna 
crowded  into  the  crystal  waters  of  the  tropics ;  or  its  whales  and 
seals  and  countless  lower  animals  swarming  in  its  polar  seas — 
how  few  of  all  these  things  we  think  of  when  we  talk  about  the 
ocean  ! 

We  pass  words  that  mean  big  things,  just  as  merchants  pass 
bank-notes  of  immense  value  with  the  same  ease  that  tliey  handle 
small  coin,  never  thinking  of  their  prodigious  significance.  I 
have  alluded  to  this  ease  with  which  we  use  words  that  denote 
stupendous  things,  to  excuse  what  may  seem  criminal  levity  in 
men,  when  they  talk  with  comparative  indifference  of  the  great 
things  revealed  to  us  in  this  "Word  of  God.  Thus  the  text  speaks 
of  "  everlasting  life  "  and  the  way  to  get  it.  Perhaps  some  of 
you  are  ah'eady  disappointed  as  you  think  I  am  going  to  preach 

(97) 


98  LOOK  AND  LIVE. 

only  about  everlasting  life.  If  so,  I  am  not  surprised.  I  do  not 
think  it  strange  that  you,  with  your  vague  and  dreamy  notions  of 
eternal  life,  should  be  more  interested  in  the  life  that  now  is,  than, 
in  that  shadowy  life  which  is  to  come.  But  while  I  make  this 
concession  to  your  spiritual  stupidity,  I  warn  you  that  this  in- 
difference is  madness  and  ruin. 

Let  me,  then,  try  to  expand  your  conceptions  of  what  the  Bible 
means  by  "  everlasting  life." 

1.  Eternal  life  is  said  to  be  the  "  gift  of  God  " — the  best  thing 
that  God  with  His  infinite  resources  can  confer  upon  man.  You 
put  a  locked  casket  in  my  hands  and  tell  me  a  merchant-prince 
has  sent  it  to  me ;  but  I  am  not  to  open  it  for  ten  years ;  that  it 
contains,  in  his  judgment,  the  richest  present  that  he,  with  all 
his  wealth,  can  bestow  upon  me  ;  that  he  has  searched  the  world 
for  it,  and  spent  an  immense  sum  in  procuring  it  for  me.  Would 
I  not  be  a  fool  if  I  should  throw  it  away  or  despise  it  ?  Just 
such  a  gift  is  everlasting  hfe.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that,"  at 
an  infinite  sacrifice,  "  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life."  God  knows  what  it  is  worth ;  and  if  He  thinks  it  of  un- 
speakable value,  is  there  not  enough  in  this  single  fact  to  lead 
you  to  think  it  worth  striving  for  ? 

2.  But  eternal  hfe  is  the  opposite  of  eternal  death.  Ah!  if 
you  could  form  any  conception  of  what  it  is  to  be  damned,  to  be 
shut  up  forever  in  the  same  dungeon  with  thieves,  murderers, 
adulterers,  blasphemers, — the  foul,  the  impure,  the  obscene, — 
to  range  wildly  around  the  vast  caverns  of  hell,  and  meet  no 
friends,  see  no  smile  of  love,  hear  no  voice  of  joy ;  to  be  haunted 
by  the  sighing  and  wailing  of  anguished  spirits ;  to  roam  at  large 
with  raging  lusts  unsatisfied;  to  feel  the  intolerable  pangs  of 
conscience ;  to  be  actively  engaged  in  hating  God  and  cursing 
Him ;  to  be  making  giant  strides  in  malignity,  depravity,  and 
despair,  and  daily  increasing  in  capacity  for  sin  and  suffering, 
till  the  woe  of  the  soul  is  vaster  than  the  wreck  of  a  world ; 
— oh  !  I  say,  to  escape  from  all  this  even  by  annibilation,  would 
be  worth  unspeakable  effort.  If  eternal  life  were  nothing  but  the 
escape  from  such  a  destmy,  it  would  be  a  gift  worthy  of  God. 


LOOK  AND  LIVE.  gg 

3.  But  eternal  life  is  no  such  negative  thing  as  a  mere  escape 
from  doom.  David  says :  "  In  Thy  presence  is  fullness  of  joy, 
and  at  Thy  right  hand  are  pleasures  for  evermore."  In  what 
does  the  fullness  of  joy  of  a  rational,  moral  spirit  consist  ? 

(1.)  Man  is  an  intellectual  being;  and  he  cannot  be  happy 
without  acquiring  knowledge.  And  what  he  wants  is  certain 
knowledge.  Hence  it  is  that  the  "  exact  sciences,"  as  they  are 
called,  have  such  a  charm.  Whatever  else  may  turn  out  to  be 
false,  the  mathematician  knows  that  his  deductions  are  everlast- 
ingly true.  The  sun  may  burn  up,  the  stars  may  fall;  but 
amidst  the  wreck  of  matter  and  the  crash  of  worlds  it  will  re- 
main true  that  "  the  square  of  the  hypothenuse  is  equal  to  the 
sum  of  the  squares  of  the  other  sides." 

Now,  in  the  world  beyond  the  grave,  every  step  we  shall  take 
into  the  territory  of  knowledge  will  be  a  permanent  conquest,  an 
everlasting  possession.  And  the  soul  will  exult  and  revel  in  the 
certitude  of  its  acquisitions. 

This  is  eternal  life,  says  our  Saviour,  to  know  the  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ.  Bat  we  can  know  (xod  only  mediately,  through 
His  works  of  creation,  providence,  and  redemption,  through  the 
experience  of  His  gracious  work  in  our  hearts,  through  Christ, 
who  is  the  image  of  His  person,  and  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead 
bodily.  If  the  heavens  are  telling  His  glory  to  us  even  now, 
what  visions  of  that  glory  shall  we  see,  when,  new-fledged  with 
immortal  pinions,  we  shall  flit  from  star  to  star,  unimpeded  in 
the  study  of  the  Divine  astronomy  ! 

If  all  history  is  a  revelation  of  God's  attributes,  what  splendid 
discoveries  shall  we  make  of  them,  when  the  veil  is  torn  off 
from  all  that  is  now  dark,  and  the  promise  shall  be  fulfilled, 
"  Thou  shalt  know  hereafter  ! "     Again,  if 

"  God,  in  the  person  of  His  Son, 
Has  all  His  mightiest  works  outdone ;" 

if,  with  all  our  researches,  we  have  not  been  able  to  master  the 
sublime  Theology,  what  treasures  of  knowledge  shall  we  amass, 
when  the  conflict  of  ages  shall  be  adjusted,  and  we  shall  know 
Him  even  as  we  are  known  by  Him ! 


100  LOOK  AND  LIVE. 

This  is  eternal  life,  to  know  God, — to  know  Him  in  the  miracles 
of  creation,  in  the  opened  mysteries  of  providence,  and  in  the 
comprehended  marvels  of  Redemption. 

(2.)  Man  is  essentially  an  active  being.  His  eternal  life  must 
consist  in  doing  something.  But  work  here  is  painful  and  re- 
pulsive. It  is  necessary,  but  it  does  not  bring  unmixed  good. 
Activity  must  be  spontaneous  in  order  to  be  a  source  of  happi- 
ness.    Let  me  illustrate : 

Look  at  a  little  boy  in  learning  to  walk ;  see  his  first  efforts  to 
keep  from  falling  on  the  hard  floor.  He  is  doing  the  hardest 
kind  of  unpleasant  work. 

But  look  at  him  a  few  years  later  on  the  play-ground.  He 
walks,  he  runs,  he  leaps,  he  wrestles.  The  boy  is  happy  now  and 
he  laughs  in  the  gladness  of  his  heart.  That  which  was  work  ia 
now  play. 

So  it  will  be  with  us  in  the  eternal  world.  The  restless  spirit 
cannot  be  idle,  but  its  activity  will  involve  no  weariness.  The 
faculties,  trained  and  disciplined  in  God's  nursery  here,  will  leap 
to  joyous  activity  and  free-play  in  the  pleasure-grounds  beyond 
the  stars.  Oh  !  how  the  soul  will  plume  its  immortal  pinions,  and 
like  the  footless  fowl  of  Lidian  fable,  career  amidst  the  fields  of 
ether,  poising  itself  upon  unwearied  wing,  and  finding  in  its  very 
activity  its  own  end,  and  aim,  and  joy. 

(3.)  Man  is  a  social  being.  Hence  he  seeks  intercourse  with 
others  by  a  law  of  his  nature.  But  even  when  the  companion- 
ship is  most  congenial,  protracted  intercourse  clogs  his  appetite, 
and  his  weary  intellect  and  jaded  affections  demand  repose.  But 
in  the  intercourse  of  the  unseen  world  there  will  be  no  satiety 
and  no  weariness.  How  exhilarating  the  prospect  of  constant 
intercourse  with  spirits  whom,  blooming  in  immortal  vigor,  "  age 
cannot  wither,  nor  custom  stale  their  infinite  variety ! " 

(4.)  Man  is  a  moral  being,  capable  of  sin  and  capable  of  holi- 
ness. Now  since  God,  who  is  supremely  holy,  is  supremely 
happy,  it  is  clear  that  man's  highest  bliss,  who  is  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  must  lie  in  his  being  holy  as  God  is  holy.  Hence 
David  cries  out,  "  I  shall  be  satisfied,  when  I  awake  with 
Thy  likeness." 


LOOK  AND  LIVE.  IQI 

(5.)  Once  more :  Man  is  essentially  a  progressive  being.  By  the 
very  constitution  of  bis  nature,  be  must  grow  in  all  bis  powers 
and  capacities  forever.  He  must  go  on  from  strength  to  strength. 
Imagination  shrinks  abashed  in  the  effort  to  scale  the  heights  to 
which  the  soul  may  climb  ;  and  language  is  powerless  to  recount 
the  possible  achievements  of  a  human  spirit  in  its  progress  toward 
an  ever-receding  goal.  Life  in  the  immortal  world  shall  be  none 
other  than  this — to  rise  higher  and  higher  toward  that  height 
which  we  can  never  climb,  leaving  below  us  a  depth  which  there 
is  no  line  to  fathom,  while  around  us  stretches  an  expanse  meas- 
m'eless  as  eternity. 

Oh  !  this  eternal  life  is  a  mighty,  blessed,  glorious  thing.  It 
is  the  gift  of  God  and  worthy  of  such  a  great  and  glorious  giver ; 
it  is  life  given  back  from  a  dark  and  dreadful  apostasy,  the  an- 
tithesis of  eternal  death ;  it  is  life  the  inspiration  of  which  is 
boundless  knowledge  ;  it  is  life  which  is  activity  without  weari- 
ness, the  joyous  play  of  invigorated  powers ;  it  is  life  in  the 
august  society  of  the  great  and  good  of  all  ages ;  it  is  life  su- 
premely blissful,  because  supremely  holy ;  it  is  life  in  all  the 
opulence  and  glory  of  never-ending  growth  and  expansion.  Oh ! 
is  not  life  like  this  worthy  of  the  aspiration  of  immortal  spirits 
>ike  yours  ?  Kow,  what  must  you  do  that  you  may  inherit  eter- 
nal life  ?    Listen,  while  I  tell  you. 

Let  us,  in  imagination,  ascend  Mount  Hor,  near  whose  base  are 
encamped  the  hosts  of  Israel.  The  wide  extended  plain  of  the 
Arabah  stretches  out  before  us  to  the  border  of  Edom.  It  is 
dotted  all  over  with  the  tents  of  sleeping  Israel.  The  day  is  just 
dawning ;  and  as  the  eastern  belt  of  the  mountains  begins  to  glow 
with  the  first  rays  of  the  morning  sun,  the  Hebrew  children  stir 
in  their  tents,  and  go  out  to  collect  the  manna,  which  lies  like 
hoar-frost  on  the  ground.  But  their  soul  "  loatheth  this  light 
bread  ";  and  the  want  of  water  adding  thirst  to  their  sufferings, 
they  begin  to  speak  against  God  and  against  Moses,  saying, 
"  Wherefore  have  ye  brought  us  up  out  of  Egypt  to  die  in  the 
wilderness?"  Suddenly  a  cry  is  heard.  It  is  echoed  and  re- 
echoed throughout  the  vast  encampment.  "  The  serpents  !  the 
serpents ! "     The  air  is  filled  with  flying,  fiery  reptiles,  whose 


102  LOOK  AND  LIVE. 

sting  brings  anguish  and  sudden  death.  They  creep  from  the 
fissures  in  the  earth  ;  they  dart  out  from  the  clefts  of  the  rocks  ; 
they  crawl  to  the  pallet  where  the  infant  is  sleeping ;  they  coil 
around  the  limbs  of  stalwart  men  ;  they  pierce  the  bosoms  of 
helpless  women,  and  leave  the  death-wound  behind.  The  poor 
people  are  hopeless  and  helpless.  They  cannot  destroy  the  ser- 
pents, for  they  are  innumerable  ;  they  have  no  antidote  for  the 
strange  poison  ;  they  despair,  they  die.  They  cry  to  Moses  for 
help.  He  intercedes  for  them  with  God.  God  commands  him 
to  erect  upon  a  pole,  so  that  all  may  see  it,  the  image  of  the  fiery 
serpent  carved  out  of  brass ;  and  the  command  is  issued  to  all  the 
people,  "  Look  upon  this  brazen  serpent  and  live."  "  And  it  came 
to  pass  that  if  a  serpent  had  bitten  any  man,  when  he  beheld  the 
serpent  of  brass,  he  lived." 

Upon  what  easy  terms  these  poor  distressed  Hebrews  saved 
their  lives !  They  had  only  to  lift  their  dying  eyes  and  fix  them 
on  this  image ;  and  this  they  might  do  without  money  and  with- 
out price,  and  without  moving  from  the  spot  where  they  were 
standing.  Looking  was  all  they  could  do.  The  cure  was  imme- 
diate. They  did  not  merely  begin  to  get  better ;  the  moment 
they  looked  they  were  well.  Nobody  could  explain  how  this 
was.  Those  who  were  bitten  did  not  wait  that  they  might  un- 
derstand before  they  looked,  how  looking  could  save  them. 
They  looked  first  and  at  once.  And  if  they  did  not  understand 
how  it  was,  afterward,  they  knew  that  they  were  well. 

Now  Christ  himself  declares  that  in  the  same  way,  by  looking 
at  Him,  you  may  have  eternal  life.  He  it  is  that  has  prescribed 
the  simple  condition  of  believing  on  Him.  "  As  Moses  lifted  up 
the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  Man  be 
lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  "; — observe  it  is  "  be- 
lieveth,"  instead  of  looketh.  You  see  that  believing  is  equiva- 
lent to  that  eager,  longing  look,  which  the  dying  Israelite  would 
cast  toward  the  brazen  seiT^ent.  Have  you  never  seen  the  elo- 
quence of  a  look  far  exceed  the  power  of  speech  ?  Have  you 
never  seen  the  dying  man,  too  w^eak  for  words,  tell  his  heart's 
desire,  without  words,  in  a  look  ?  Have  you  never  been  over- 
come by  a  wistful  look  of  your  little  boy,  when  he  looked  and 


LOOK  AND  LIVE.  103 

looked,  but  was  afraid  to  say  a  word  lest  you  should  answer  "  no  "  ? 
Well  now,  believing  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  just  that  look 
of  desire,  as  the  soul  sees  Jesus  Christ  set  forth  in  the  Gospel. 
"  If  you  can  remember  how  you  felt  as  a  little  child,  while  you 
timidly  plead  by  a  look,  when  you  dared  not  utter  your  wish,  and 
you  perceive  that  your  present  desire  for  salvation  is  like  that, — 
then  this  is  '  believing.'  " 

Now  why  should  you  say,  "  How  can  this  simple  act  of  faith 
save  my  soul  ?  "  The  efficacy  of  the  act  depends  on  God's  ap- 
pointment. Can  you  not  believe  that  a  thing  is,  without  know- 
ing how  it  is  ? 

Let  me  then  hold  up  before  your  eyes  the  antitype  of  the 
brazen  serpent.  If  any  of  you  are  mourning  over  your  guilt  and 
are  full  of  anguish,  raise  your  behoving  eyes  to  Him  who  is  lift- 
ed up  in  this  assembly,  and  one  look  will  enable  you  to  dry  your 
eyes  forever.  You  who  may  be  groping  in  darkness,  look  there 
to  be  enlightened.  You  who  are  weak,  look  and  be  strong. 
You  who  are  polluted,  look  and  be  pure.  You  who  are  hard- 
hearted, look  at  Him  hanging  on  the  tree,  and  be  melted  into 
contrition  and  love. 

You  who  are  agonized  with  doubts  as  to  whether  you  are  a  child 
of  God,  look  and  gain  a  firmer  assurance  of  your  adoption. 
Whatever  your  infirmities  or  sorrows,  or  sins,  from  every  part  of 
this  Hall,  oh  !  look  to  Him  who  is  hfted  up  in  the  midst  of  this 
congregation. 

As  the  serpent  was  lifted  up  in  the  centre  of  the  camp,  so 
Christ  has  been  lifted  up  in  the  centre  of  the  world,  that  all  eye3 
from  east  and  west,  from  north  and  south,  might  fix  on  Him. 
There  He  hangs,  and  every  lacerated  vein  bleeds  balm  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations. 

And  when  in  your  terror  or  in  your  agony  you  cry  out, 
"  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ? "  from  the  top  of  the  bloody 
cross,  hear  the  echo,  "  Be  saved,"  "  Look  unto  me,  and  be  ye 
Baved,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth."  While  millions  of  eyes  are 
turned  thither  from  all  regions  of  the  globe,  and  millions  of 
souls  are  healed  by  a  look,  how  like  that  wondrous  scene  in  the 
wilderness !     And  while  ten  thousand  eyes  glisten  with  tears  of 


104  LOOK  AND  LIVE. 

joy  as  they  look  and  are  saved,  "  How  shall  you  escape  if  you 
neglect  so  great  salvation  ? "  Oh !  remember,  it  is  life  eternal 
that  is  staked  on  this  simple  act  of  believing,  and  death,  eternal 
death,  that  hangs  on  your  refusal. 

And  though  you  may  weary  of  hearing  this  oft-repeated,  fa- 
miliar story,  yet  I  will  follow  you  with  it  till  you  take  the  final 
plunge  into  the  gulf  of  despair.  So  that  the  last  sound  you  shall 
hear  from  my  lips  while  on  this  side  of  perdition  shall  be,  "  Behold, 
behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away,  which  taketh  away, 
the  sin  of  the  world." 


X. 

GRACE  REIGOTNG. 

"  For  sin  shall  not  have  dominion  over  you  ;  for  ye  are  not  under  the  law, 
but  under  grace." — Romans  vi.  14. 

Law  is  a  rule  of  action  prescribed  by  a  supreme  power  com- 
manding what  is  right,  and  prohibiting  what  is  wrong,  with  a 
penalty  annexed  for  its  violation. 

The  law  referred  to  in  the  text  is  the  moral  law  of  God.  "  It  ia 
a  shallow  attempt  to  fritter  away  the  meaning  of  Scripture  to  say 
that  by  '  law '  here,  Paul  means  only  the  ceremonial  law."  "•'' 
"  To  be  under  law  means  to  be  under  its  authority,  and  under  its 
constraining  influence.  The  Apostle  means  to  say  we  are  under 
neither.  We  are  not  only  free  from  its  objective  authority,  but 
from  its  subjective  influence."  f 

The  assertion  of  the  Apostle,  then,  is  that  believers  are  not 
under  that  law  which  is  summarily  comprehended  in  the  Ten 
Commandments. 

A  very  startling  statement !  It  seems  to  countenance  the 
heresy  of  John  Agricola,  who  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury originated  the  doctrine  known  as  Antinomianism,  He 
taught  that  the  law  is  of  no  use  or  obligation  under  the  Gospel 
dispensation  ;  that  good  works  do  not  promote  our  salvation,  nor 
do  bad  ones  hinder  it ;  that  repentance  is  not  to  be  preached 
from  the  Decalogue,  but  only  from  the  Gospel.  The  Antinomian 
sect  sprang  up  in  England  during  the  protectorate  of  Cromwell, 
and  extended  the  system  of  hbertinism  much  farther  than  Agric- 
ola did.  Some  of  them  maintained  that  if  they  should  commit 
any  kind  of  sin,  it  would  do  them  no  hurt,  nor  in  the  least  affect 

*  Plumer.  f  Hodge  in  loco. 

(105) 


106  GRACE  REIGNING. 

their  eternal  state : — that  it  is  one  of  the  distinguishing  charac- 
teristics of  the  elect  that  they  cannot  do  anything  displeasing  to 
God.  Of  course  such  an  interpretation  is  monstrous,  especially 
as  the  Apostle  in  this  very  connection  is  unfolding  the  doctrine 
of  sanctification. 

Tlie  subject  of  the  relation  of  believers  to  the  moral  law  has 
been  the  theme  of  much  discussion.  The  reason  of  this  is,  that 
the  New  Testament  seems  to  contradict  itself.  Thus  we  find  our 
Lord  saying,  "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  Law  or 
the  Prophets :  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil.  For,  ver- 
ily, I  say  unto  you.  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one 
tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled. 
Whosoever,  therefore,  shall  break  one  of  these  least  command- 
ments, and  shall  teach  men  so,  he  shall  be  called  the  least  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven :  but  whosoever  shall  do  and  teach  them,  the 
same  shall  be  called  great  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Stronger 
language  could  not  be  used  to  assert  the  abiding  force  and  obli- 
gation of  the  law.  So,  too,  we  find  the  Apostles  always  enforc- 
ing the  duties  prescribed  by  the  law.  Thus  the  Apostle  James 
exhorts  the  disciples  "  not  to  speak  evil  of  the  law  or  to  judge  it, 
but  to  fulfil  it."  The  Apostle  Paul  says,  he  himself  is  "  under 
the  law  to  Christ ";  and  he  presses  on  his  converts  at  Kome  and 
in  Galatia  the  exercise  of  love,  on  the  ground  of  its  being  "  the  ful- 
filling of  the  law."  Yet,  this  same  Apostle,  in  writing  to 
Timothy,  says,  that  "  the  law  is  not  made  for  a  righteous  man 
(that  is,  for  the  justified  believer),  but  for  the  lawless  and  dis- 
obedient, for  the  ungodly  and  for  sinners,"  etc.  (1  Tim.  i.  9). 
And  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  (chap.  vii.  6),  "  Now  we  are 
delivered  from  the  law,  that  being  dead  wherein  we  were  held, 
that  we  should  serve  in  newness  of  spirit  and  not  in  the  oldness 
of  the  letter."  Then  the  text,  "  Ye  are  not  under  the  law,  but 
under  grace."  There  must  be  some  way  of  reconciling  state- 
ments so  apparently  contradictory.  Their  perfect  harmony,  I 
hope  to  make  apparent  in  this  discourse. 

In  what  respect,  then,  can  it  be  said  that  believers  are  free  from 
the  Moral  Law  ? 

I  answer : 


GRACE  REIGNING.  107 

1.  Believers  are  not  under  the  law  as  to  the  ground  of  their 
condemnation  or  justification  hefore  God.  It  is  not  to  the  law, 
but  to  Christ,  that  they  are  indebted  for  pardon  and  hfe ;  and  re- 
ceiving these  from  Him  as  His  gift  of  grace,  they  cannot  be 
brought  by  the  law  into  condemnation  and  death.  The  reason  is 
that  Christ  has,  by  His  own  pure  and  spotless  obedience,  done 
what  the  law  in  the  hands  of  fallen  humanity  could  not  do.  He 
has  brought  in  the  everlasting  righteousness,  which  by  its  infinite 
worth  has  merited  eternal  life  for  as  many  as  believe  on  Him. 
"  There  is,  therefore,  now  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in 
Christ  Jesus."  "  Whosoever  believeth  upon  Him,  is  justified  from 
all  things  from  which  ye  could  not  be  justified  by  the  law  of 
Moses "  (Rom.  viii.  1 ;  Acts  xiii.  39).  Or  in  the  stronger  and 
more  comprehensive  language  of  Christ  himself,  "  He  that  hear- 
eth  my  word  and  believeth  on  Him  that  sent  me,  hath  everlast- 
ing life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condemnation,  but  is  passed  from 
death  unto  life  "  (John  v.  24). 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  we,  as  distinguished  from  the  saints 
under  the  old  dispensation,  are  delivered  from  the  law  as  a  cov- 
enant of  works,  and  there  is  an  implied  contrast  between  our 
condition  and  theirs.  This  language  is  adapted  to  mislead ;  for 
it  seems  to  imply  that  as  the  law  certainly  formed  the  basis  of  a 
covenant  with  the  Old  Testament  Church,  its  being  so  formed 
made  it  something  else  than  simply  a  rule  of  life,  and  warranted 
the  Israelite  to  look  to  it  in  the  first  instance,  at  least,  for  life  and 
blessing.  This,  however,  was  not  the  purpose  for  which  the  law 
was  given  as  a  covenant  among  the  Jews.  Deliverance  from  the 
law,  as  a  rule  of  condemnation  or  of  justification,  marks  no  essen- 
tial distinction  between  the  case  of  believers  under  the  Old,  and 
that  of  behevers  under  the  New  Testament  dispensation.  That 
is,  it  was  just  as  true  of.  Abraham  and  of  David  that  they  were  not 
under  the  law,  but  under  grace,  as  it  is  true  of  believers  now. 
Strictly  speaking,  the  Church  never  was  under  the  law  as  a  cov- 
enant. It  was  only  a  mistake  of  the  carnal  members  of  the 
Church  to  suppose  so.  We  are  just  as  much  under  the  law  now, 
as  was  any  member  of  the  Jewish  Church, — no  less,  no  more. 
He  was  not  under  the  law  in  the  sense  that  by  doing  the  works 


108  GRACE  REIGNING. 

of  the  law  he  could  have  been  justified ;  neither  are  we.  He 
was,  and  we,  alike,  are  naturally  under  law  to  God ;  and  as  trans- 
gressors of  law  liable  to  punishment.  But  through  the  grace  of 
God  in  Christ,  we  are  not  so  under  it,  if  we  have  become  true 
believers  in  Him.  "We  have  pardon  and  acceptance  through 
faith  in  His  blood ;  and  even  though  in  many  things  offending, 
and  in  all  coming  short,  yet  while  faith  abides  in  us,  we  cannot 
come  into  condemnation.  To  this  effect  are  all  the  passages 
which  treat  of  justification,  and  declare  it  to  be  granted  to  the 
ungodly  as  a  free  gift  of  grace  in  Christ,  without  the  deeds  of  the 
law. 

2.  But  this  is  not  the  only  respect  in  which  believers  are  free 
from  the  law.  In  this  sixth  chapter  of  Romans,  the  Apostle  dis- 
tinctly teaches  that  helievers  are  not  tinder  the  law  as  to  their 
walk  and  conduct.  In  this  respect  also  he  affirms  that  we  are 
dead  to  the  law  and  are  not  under  it,  but  under  grace ;  "  the 
grace  of  God's  indwelling  Spirit,  whose  quickening  energy  and 
pulse  of  life  take  the  place  of  the  law's  outward  prescriptions  and 
magisterial  authority."  The  Apostle  teUs  us  in  other  places  that 
the  "  hnv  is  not  made  for  the  righteous  ":  that  believers  "  have 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  and  where  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is,  there 
is  liberty."  Christ  says,  "  If  the  Son  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be 
free  indeed";  i.  e.^  free  from  the  law  as  a  condemning  power, 
and  free  from  it  as  a  commanding  power.  An  old  divine  has 
very  forcibly  expressed  it  thus  :  "  Our  Lord  Jesus  put  Himself 
under  the  commanding  power  of  the  law,  and  gave  it  perfect 
obedience,  to  deliver  His  people  from  under  it.  God  sent  forth 
His  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  them 
that  are  under  the  law.  That  they  then  should  put  their  necks 
tinder  that  yoke  again  cannot  but  be  highly  dishonoring  to  this 
crucified  Christ,  who  disarmed  the  law  of  its  thunders,  defaced 
the  obligation  of  it  as  a  covenant ;  and,  as  it  were,  grinded  the 
two  stones  upon  which  it  was  wrought  to  powder." 

I  know  this  will  strike  some  of  you  as  new  doctrine.  It  is, 
however,  no  newer  than  Augustine,  and  Luther,  and  Calvin. 
But  you  will  ask,  "  Is  not  this  dangerous  doctrine  \  Where  now 
is  the  safeguard  against  sin  \    May  we  not  do  as  we  list,  oblivious 


GRACE  REIGNING.  109 

of  any  distinction  between  holiness  and  sin,  or  even  denjnng  its 
existence  as  regards  the  cliildren  of  God,  on  the  ground  that 
where  no  law  is,  there  is  no  transgression?"  The  Apostle's 
reply  is,  "  God  forbid ";  so  far  from  it,  freedom  from  the  law 
T  has  for  its  sole  aim  deliverance  from  "  sin's  dominion "  and 
"  fruit  unto  holiness."  Let  me  state  the  doctrine  in  the  language 
of  one  of  the  ablest  divines  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
"  The  truth  fully  stated  is  simply  this  :  When  the  believer  re- 
ceives Christ  as  the  Lord,  his  Righteousness,  he  is  not  only  justi- 
fied by  grace,  but  he  comes  into  a  state  of  grace,  or  gets  grace 
into  his  heart  as  a  living,  reigning,  governing  principle  of  hfe. 
What,  however,  is  this  grace,  but  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  ?  And  this  Spirit  is  emphatically  the  Holy  Spirit :  holi- 
ness is  the  very  element  of  His  being  and  the  essential  law  of 
His  working.  Every  desire  He  breathes,  every  feeling  He 
awakens,  every  action  He  disposes  and  enables  us  to  perform,  is 
according  to  godliness.  And  if  we  are  only  sufficiently  possessed 
of  this  Spirit,  and  yield  ourselves  to  His  direction  and  control, 
we  no  longer  need  the  restraint  and  discipline  of  the  law  :  we 
are  free  from  it,  hecause  we  are  superior  to  it.  Quickened  and 
led  by  the  Spirit,  we  of  ourselves  love  and  do  the  things  which 
the  law  requires." 

Does  not  nature  itself  teach  substantially  the  same  lesson  in  its 
line  of  things  ?  The  child,  so  long  as  he  is  a  child,  must  be  sub- 
ject to  the  law  of  his  parents  :  his  safety  and  well-being  depend 
on  his  being  so  ;  he  must  on  every  side  be  hemmed  in,  checked, 
and  stimulated  by  that  law  of  his  parents ;  otherwise  mischief 
and  destruction  will  infallibly  overtake  him.  But  as  he  ripens 
toward  manhood,  he  becomes  freed  from  the  law,  because  he  no 
longer  needs  such  external  discipline  and  restraint.  He  is  a  law 
to  himself,  putting  away  childish  things,  and  of  his  own  accord 
acting  as  the  parental  authority,  had  he  still  been  subject  to  it, 
would  have  required  and  enforced  him  to  do.  In  a  word,  the 
mind  has  become  his,  from  which  the  parental  law  proceeded, 
and  he  has  consequently  become  independent  of  its  outward  pre- 
scriptions. And  what  is  it  to  be  under  the  grace  of  God's  Spirit, 
but  to  have  the  mind  of  God— the  mind  of  Him  who  gave  the 


110  GRACE  REIGNING. 

law  simply  as  a  revelation  of  what  was  in  His  heart  respecting 
the  holiness  of  His  peoj^le  ?  So  that  the  more  they  have  of  the 
one,  the  less  obviously  they  need  the  other ;  and  only  require 
to  be  complete  in  the  grace  of  the  Spirit  in  order  to  be  rendered 
wholly  independent  of  the  bonds  and  restrictions  of  the  law. 

Or  think  again  of  the  relation  in  which  a  good  man  stands 
with  respect  to  the  laws  of  his  country.  In  one  sense,  indeed,  he 
is  under  them  ;  but  in  another  and  higher  sense,  he  is  not — he  is 
above  them,  and  moves  along  his  course  freely  and  without  con- 
straint as  if  they  existed  not.  For  what  is  their  proper  object 
but  to  prevent,  under  severe  penalties,  the  commission  of  crime  ? 
Crime,  however,  is  already  the  object  of  his  abhorrence  ;  he 
needs  no  penalties  to  keep  him  from  it.  He  would  never  harm 
the  person  or  property  of  his  neighbor,  though  there  were  not  a 
single  enactment  on  the  statute-book.  His  own  love  of  good  and 
hatred  of  e^al  keep  him  in  the  path  of  rectitude,  and  not  the 
fines,  imprisonment,  or  tortures,  which  the  law  hangs  around  the 
path  of  the  criminal.     The  law  was  not  made  for  him. 

Precisely  so  is  it  with  the  man  who  is  under  grace.  The  law 
considered  as  an  outward  discipline,  placing  him  under  a  yoke  of 
manifold  commands  and  prohibitions,  has  for  him  ceased  to  exist. 
But  it  has  ceased  in  this  respect,  only  by  taking  possession  of 
him  in  another.  It  is  now  within  his  heart.  It  is  "  the  law  of 
the  Spirit  of  life  in  his  inner  man";  emphatically,  therefore, 
"  the  law  of  liberty  ":  his  delight  is  to  do  it,  and  it  were  better 
for  him  not  to  live,  than  to  live  otherwise  than  the  tenor  of  the 
law  requires.  We  see  in  Jesus  the  perfect  exemplar  of  this  free- 
will service  to  heaven.  For  while  He  was  made  under  the  law, 
He  was  so  replenished  with  the  Spirit,  that  He  fulfilled  it  as  if 
He  fulfilled  it  not ;  it  was  His  very  meat  to  do  the  will  of  Him 
who  sent  Him  ;  and  not  more  certainly  did  the  law  enjoin,  than 
He  in  His  inmost  soul  loved  righteousness  and  hated  iniquity. 
Such,  also,  in  a  measure,  will  ever  be  the  case  with  the  devout 
believer  on  Jesus — in  the  same  measure  in  which  he  has  received 
of  the  Master's  Spirit.  Does  the  law  command  him  to  bear  no 
false  witness  against  his  neighbor  ?  He  is  already  so  renewed  in 
the  spirit  of  his  mind,  as  to  speak  the  truth  in  his  heart  and  be 


GRACE  REIGNING.  HI 

ready  to  swear  to  Ms  own  hurt.  Does  the  law  demand  through 
all  its  precepts  supreme  love  to  God  and  brotherly  love  to  men  ? 
Why  should  this  need  to  be  demanded  as  a  matter  of  law  from 
him  who  has  the  Eternal  Spirit  of  Love  bearing  sway  within, 
and  may  therefore  be  said  to  live  in  and  breathe  an  atmosphere 
of  love  ?  Like  Paul,  he  can  say  with  king-like  freedom,  "  I  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  strengthening  me  ":  even  in  chains, 
I  am  free :  I  choose  what  God  chooses  for  me  :  His  will  in  doing 
or  suffering,  I  embrace  as  my  own  ;  for  I  have  Him  working  in 
me  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure. 

It  is  to  this  freedom  from  the  law  as  a  command  that  the 
prophet  Jeremiah  refers,  "  After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I 
will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts  and  write  it  in  their  hearts, 
and  will  be  their  God  and  they  shall  be  my  people ;  and  they 
shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor,  and  every  man  his 
brother,  saying,  K710W  the  Lord;  for  I  will  forgive  their  iniquity, 
and  their  sin  I  will  remember  no  more"  (Jer.  xxxi.  34).  To 
the  same  intent  is  the  promise  of  God  by  the  prophet  Ezekiel, 
"  And  I  will  put  my  Spirit  within  you,  and  cause  you  to  walk 
in  my  statutes,  and  ye  shall  keep  my  judgments  and  do  them." 

"When  the  Apostle  says,  "  Ye  are  not  under  the  law,"  he  does 
not  teach  that  the  law  is  abolished.  He  merely  says  that,  through 
grace,  believers  are  not  under  it.  In  one  place  he  exhorts  be- 
lievers to  "  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ."  Conformity  to  the  law's 
requirements  is  held  forth  and  inculcated  as  the  very  perfection 
of  Christian  excellence.  For  it  is  not  as  if  there  were  two, — 
the  law  and  the  Spirit — contending  authorities  or  forces  drawing 
in  separate,  distinct  lines.  On  the  contrary,  they  are  essentially 
and  thoroughly  agreed — emanations,  both  of  them,  of  the  un- 
chansino;  holiness  of  Godhead — the  one  in  its  outward  form  and 
character,  the  other  its  inward  spring  and  living  pulse.  What 
the  one  requires,  the  other  prompts  and  qualifies  to  perform. 
And  as  the  law  at  first  came  as  an  handmaid  to  the  previously 
existing  "Covenant  of  Grace,"  so  does  it  still  remain  in  the 
hand  of  the  Spirit  to  aid  Him  in  carrying  out  the  objects  for 
which  He  condescends  to  dwell  and  act  in  the  bosoms  of  men. 
The  law  of  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the  law  of  the  Spirit 


112  GRACE  REIGNING. 

of  life  in  Christ,  both  saj,  "  Do  this."  But  here  is  the  differ- 
ence ;  the  one  says,  "  Do  this,  and  live  ";  the  other  sajs,  "  Live 
and  do  this."  The  one  says,  "  Do  this/br  life  ";  the  other  says, 
«  Do  this/;'om  life."  * 

If  all  this  is  true,  the  question  arises,  of  what  use  is  the  law 
to  those  who  are  really  under  the  Spirit  ?  I  answer :  the  law 
would  be  of  no  use,  if  the  work  of  spiritual  renovation  were 
perfected  in  us.  But  since  imperfection  still  cleaves  to  the  child 
of  God,  the  outward  discipline  of  the  law  cannot  be  dispensed 
with. 

There  are  three  different  respects  in  which,  although  free  from 
the  law,  we  need  the  law.  Here  again,  I  quote  in  part  from  Dr. 
Fairbairu. 

1.  "  We  need  the  law  to  Jceep  us  under  grace.  The  law  waa 
not  only  our  schoolmaster  to  iring  us  in  the  first  instance  to 
Christ ;  but  it  is  now  our  guardian  to  keej)  us  to  Christ,  by  con- 
tinually forcing  upon  us  the  conviction  that  we  must  in  every 
respect  be  the  debtors  to  grace  and  grace  alone.  And  just  in 
proportion  to  the  clearness  with  which  we  discern  the  breadth 
and  spirituality  of  the  law,  and  our  utter  inability  to  meet  its 
demands,  does  it  serve  this  end  of  driving  us  for  peace  and  con- 
solation to  Christ  alone." 

2.  "  The  law  is  useful  to  restrain  us  from  the  commission  of 
sins,  either  through  the  power  of  some  lingering  lust,  or  through 
ignorance  that  they  are  sins.  '  By  the  law  is  the  knowledge  of 
sin.'  It  is  true  that  in  the  subject  of  grace  there  can  be  no 
habitual  inclination  to  live  in  sin  ;  for  he  is  '  God's  workmanship 
in  Christ  Jesus,  created  in  Him  unto  good  works ';  he  '  delights 
in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man ;  but  there  is  a  law  in 
his  members  (^.  e.,  in  his  carnal  nature),  warring  against  the  law 
of  his  mind ';  and  the  moral  law  with  its  discipline  comes  in 
to  supply  the  imperfections  of  the  spirit  and  to  curb  the  remain- 
ing tendencies  to  sin." 

3.  "  The  third  use  of  the  law  is  to  hold  up  before  the  mind 
a  clear  representation  of  the  holiness  which  believers  should  ever 

*  "Marrow  on  Modem  Divinity,"  p.  174. 


GRACE  REIGNING.  US 

be  striving  to  attain.  The  law  stands  before  them  with  its  reve- 
lation of  holiness,  like  a  faithful  and  resplendent  mirror  in  which 
they  may  see  without  danger  of  delusion  or  mistake  the  perfect 
image  of  that  excellence  which  they  should  ever  be  exhibiting. 
'  We  are  free, — we  have  the  Spirit,  and  are  not  subject  to  bond- 
age.' True,  but  free,  only  to  act  as  the  servants  of  Christ : — 
free,  but  not  to  introduce  anything  we  please  into  the  service  of 
God  ;  free,  but  to  worship  Him  only  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  free, 
but  not  to  withhold  from  Him  that  proportion  of  our  annual 
income  which  He  has  expected  from  His  Church  in  all  ages ; 
free,  but  not  to  observe  one  day  in  ten,  instead  of  one  in  seven 
as  a  day  of  sacred  rest.  If  you  are  really  filled  with  His  Spirit, 
the  love  of  God  must  have  been  so  breathed  into  your  soul  as  of 
necessity  to  make  it  your  delight  to  do  whatever  you  can  for  His 
glory,  and  to  engage  in  the  services  which  bring  you  into  near- 
est fellowship  with  heaven.  And  the  law  is  of  use  to  tell  you  what 
to  do,  in  order  to  do  this.  It  tells  you  what  you  cannot  know 
by  the  mere  illumination  of  the  Spirit ;  but  what  the  sanctifying 
power  of  the  Spirit  inclines  you  to  do  as  soon  as  you  learn  from 
tiie  law  that  this  is  the  will  of  God." 

Now,  perhaps,  you  are  able  to  see  the  difference  between  the 
law  as  a  command  with  a  penalty  attached  to  its  infraction,  and 
the  law  as  a  rule,  or  as  a  guide  to  Christian  conduct.  The  whole 
moral  law  as  a  command  is  abolished  for  every  believer ;  and  the 
whole  moral  law  in  all  its  spirituality  is  in  full  force  as  a  rule. 
It  is  said  of  Luther,  that  when  this  truth  first  dawned  on  his 
mind,  it  gave  him  such  relief  from  the  pangs  of  his  tortured 
conscience,  "  he  considered  himself  as  standing  at  the  gate  of 
Paradise."  A  very  homely  illustration  may  aid  you  to  grasp 
this  distinction  more  firmly.  The  law  as  a  command  is  like  the 
rails  on  a  railroad,  which  force  the  carriage  to  keep  a  certain  di- 
rection on  penalty  of  disaster  if  it  flies  the  track ;  the  law  as  a 
rule  is  like  a  finger-board  at  the  fork  of  a  turnpike,  pointing  out 
the  right  direction,  which  vsdll  be  spontaneously  followed  by  the 
traveller  who  desires  to  reach  his  home. 

This  doctrine  is  of  the  highest  importance,  and  serves  to  dis- 
tinguish those  who  are  trying  to  keep  the  law  from  a  servile  fear 


114  GRACE  REIGNING. 

of  God's  judgments,  and  those  who,  not  being  under  a  bondage 
of  fear,  find  it  "  their  meat  and  drink  to  do  the  will  of  their  Fa- 
ther in  heaven." 

If  all  believers  could  apprehend  the  truth  which  I  have  this 
day  endeavored  to  set  plainly  before  you,  the  whole  complex- 
ion of  the  Church  would  be  changed.  It  is  because  so  many 
only  half  believe  the  doctrine  that  they  go  downcast  and  mourn- 
ing over  their  religious  condition.  Show  me  a  line  in  the  New 
Testament  that  encourages  a  Christian  to  entertain  for  a  moment 
a  feeling  of  sadness,  or  doubt,  or  despondency.  The  whole  tone 
of  New  Testament  Christian  experience  is  that  of  jubilant  tri- 
umph. Its  language  is,  "  Rejoice,  and  again  I  say,  rejoice." 
"  Ah ! "  some  of  you  say,  "  this  is  addressed  to  those  who  can 
find  something  in  their  high  attainments  for  which  to  rejoice." 
I  say,  No  such  thing ;  it  is  addressed  to  any  man  who  has  re- 
ceived Jesus  as  his  Saviour,  before  he  has  made  attainments  of 
any  sort.  It  was  appropriate  to  the  thief  on  the  cross,  to  the 
jailer  of  Philippi,  to  the  poor  publican  as  he  returned  from  the 
temple  justified  rather  than  the  good  Pharisee  who  had  made 
high  attainments  in  piety.  I  say,  it  is  addressed  to  any  one  of 
you  who  has  faith  in  Christ  only  like  a  grain  of  mu-tard-seed. 
Well  may  you  rejoice ;  for  you  are  not  in  the  realm  of  the  law ; 
you  are  in  the  kingdom  of  grace.  "Why  do  the  laws  of  China 
give  you  no  concern  ?  Because  you  owe  no  allegiance  at  Pekin. 
In  like  manner,  the  moral  law  ought  to  inspire  you  with  no 
dread.  You  owe  no  allegiance  to  Sinai.  You  are  in  the  king- 
dom of  grace,  and  your  allegiance  is  due  to  Mount  Zion.  "  For  ye 
are  not  come  to  the  mount  that  might  be  touched  and  that  burned 
with  fire,  nor  unto  blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest,  and  the 
sound  of  a  trumpet,  and  the  voice  of  words :  but  ye  are  come 
unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  company  of  angels, 
to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born  which  are 
written  in  heaven,  to  God  the  judge  of  all,  a!id  to  the  spirits  of 
just  men  made  perfect,  and  to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  New 
Covenant,  and  to  the  blood  of  sprinkling  that  speaketh  better 
things  than  that  of  Abel."    This  is  the  glorious  kingdom  of 


GRACE  REIGNING.  t\S 

grace — a  kingdom  which  has  no  law  and  no  penalties — a  king- 
dom in  which  the  very  name  of  punishment  is  excluded  from  its 
vocabulary,  because  obedience  is  spontaneous  and  love  to  Christ 
the  constraining  impulse.  Love  being  the  law,  His  yoke  is  easy 
and  His  burden  light. 

Now,  you  see  the  force  of  the  Apostle's  reasoning :  "  Sin  shall 
not  have  dominion  over  you  ;  for  ye  are  not  under  the  law,  but 
under  grace,"  A  strange  reason  to  the  minds  of  those  who  do 
not  understand  the  doctrine.  "  You  shall  cease  to  sin,  because 
the  law  commanding  you  not  to  sin  is,  for  you,  abolished  and 
destroyed  "  ! ! !  The  very  law  which  you  supposed  was  ordained 
to  deter  you  from  sin  is  ground  to  powder.  The  tables  of  stone 
are  broken  a  second  time ;  and  yet,  says  the  Apostle,  ye  shall 
not  sin  against  them.  Wonderful  paradox  of  Divine  grace! 
And  yet  as  easily  explained,  as  it  is  superlatively  wonderful.  For 
the  same  Spirit  of  grace,  by  whose  instrumentality  alone  you  have 
been  constrained  and  enabled  to  receive  Christ  and  thus  have 
been  transferred  from  the  domain  of  law  into  the  domain  of 
grace, — this  same  Spirit  writes  the  law  anew  in  your  heart,  and 
makes  you  a  law  unto  yourself ;  and  thus  by  His  quickening  and 
sanctifying  power  constantly  operating  in  you,  generates  sponta- 
neous obedience  to  the  will  of  Christ  which  is  in  perfect  accord 
with  the  abolished  law. 

What  need  now  to  remind  you  to  keep  the  Sabbath  holy,  when 
a  day  in  His  courts  is  better  than  a  thousand,  and  you  had  rather 
be  a  doorkeeper  in  the  house  of  God  than  dwell  in  the  tents  of 
wickedness?  What  need  now  to  enjoin  upon  you  to  "have  no 
other  gods  before  Him,"  when  the  language  of  your  inmost  soul 
is :  "  Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon 
earth  that  I  desire  besides  Thee"  ?  Wliat  need  now  to  remind 
you  that  the  second  Commandment  is  like  unto  the  first,  "  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,"  when  ye  have  heard  from 
Christ  His  new  commandment,  "that  ye  love  one  another"? 
What  need  now  to  tell  you  that  God  has  always  expected  at  least 
a  tenth  of  His  people's  income  to  be  devoted  to  Him  when  you 
"thus  judge  that  if  one  died  for  all,  then  all  died;  and  that  He 
died  for  all  that  they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live  unto 


116  GRACE  REIGNING. 

themselves,  but  unto  Him  that  died  for  them  ";  when  the  Spirit 
of  Christ  that  is  in  you  prompts  you  to  sing, 

"  Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small  ; 
Love  so  amazing,  so  Divine, 
Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all "? 

Oh !  brethren,  if  you  only  apprehended  the  full  meaning  of 
the  text,  you  would  be  delivered  not  only  from  the  bondage  of 
fear,  but  from  bondage  to  the  world.  AVliat  a  scene  of  holy 
work  for  Christ  this  congregation  would  present !  What  entire 
consecration  of  everything !  What  holy  joy  !  What  a  busy  em- 
ployment of  all  the  talents !  Not  from  constraint,  but  from  pure, 
irrepressible,  overflowing  love  to  Him  who  hath  redeemed  you 
from  the  curse  of  the  law,  and  introduced  you  into  the  free  king- 
dom of  grace,  and  made  you  not  subjects,  but  "  Sons  of  God." 


XI. 

TEUE  FREEDOM. 

"If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed." — 
John  viii.  36. 

There  is  no  word,  the  meaning  of  which  is  so  little  under- 
stood, as  the  word  freedom.  Thousands  are  slaves  who  boast 
that  they  are  freemen. 

In  the  conversation  between  our  Saviour  and  the  Jews  recited 
in  this  chapter,  they  made  an  empty  boast  of  their  descent  from 
Abraham,  and  seemed  proud  that  they  were  never  in  bondage  to 
any  man.  Forgetting  that  they  had  lost  their  civil  liberties,  they 
gloried  in  the  fact  that  they  were  not  in  a  state  of  domestic  slav- 
ery. Like  thousands  among  us  at  the  present  day,  they  thought 
that  freedom  consists  in  the  absence  of  external  restraint — a  state 
of  irresponsibilitj  to  any  authority.  Now  this  opinion  carried 
out  to  its  logical  results  would  make  the  savage  state  the  perfec- 
tion of  liberty,  and  consequently  the  highest  form  of  human  ex- 
istence. 

To  such  an  erroneous  estimate  of  the  true  nature  of  freedom, 
the  Scriptures  justify  us  in  opposing  the  grand  proposition  that 
t7me  liberty  consists  in  voluntary  subjection  to  legitimate  au- 
thority. 

A  child  who  is  subject  to  his  parent  whom  he  loves  and  whom 
he  joyfully  obeys,  is  free  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term. 

A  wife  who  yields  a  loyal  obedience  to  her  husband,  is  also 
free. 

A  subject  who  yields  a  voluntary  homage  to  his  ruler,  whether 
he  be  President  or  King,  or  Imperial  Despot,  is  free. 

In  his  last  discourse  to  the  children  of  Israel,  when  all  the 

(117) 


118  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

tribes  were  gathered  at  Shecbem,  Joshua  said  :  "  Choose  ye  this 
day  whom  ye  will  serve."  They  were  free  to  choose,  but  they 
must  choose  to  serve,  to  serve  either  the  gods  of  the  Ammonites  or 
the  God  of  their  fathers. 

True  liberty,  I  repeat  it,  consists  not  in  freedom  from  restraint, 
but  in  voluntary  subjection  to  legitimate  authority. 

This  definition  is  apphcable  alike  to  personal  liberty  and  civil 
liberty,  and  at  your  leisure  you  may  subject  it  to  the  most  rigid 
criticism,  and  you  will  find  that  it  will  stand  the  test  at  the  bar 
of  history,  of  common  sense,  and  of  Scripture. 

Without  pausing  now  to  justify  this  definition,  I  proceed  upon 
the  assumption  of  its  soundness.  If  this  definition  is  correct,  if 
liberty  in  the  creature  consists  in  subjection  to  lawful  authority, 
then  most  men  are  slaves.  Even  under  the  mildest  form  of  civil 
government,  men  may  be,  and  thousands  are,  slaves.  They  may 
be  free  from  physical  restraint ;  there  may  be  no  bodily  servitude ; 
but  to  real  freedom  they  may  be  entire  strangers.  This  was 
what  our  Saviour  intimated  to  the  Jews  when  they  claimed  that 
they  had  never  been  in  bondage.  He  distinctly  denies  their 
proud  claim.  Passing  from  the  region  of  the  secular,  the  civil, 
and  political,  and  rising  at  once  to  a  view  of  their  spiritual  con- 
dition, in  answer  to  their  indignant  demand,  "  How  say  est  Thou, 
Ye  shall  he  made  free? "  Jesus  answered  them,  "  Yerily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  whosoever  committeth  sin  is  the  slave  of  sin." 

My  object  in  this  discourse  is  to  analyze  spiritual  bondage  and 
spiritual  freedom,  to  show  you  the  elements  in  each,  and  to  lead 
you  by  the  contrast  to  seek  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God. 

Liberty,  I  have  said,  consists  of  two  essential  elements :  First, 
voluntary  subjection ;  second,  subjection  to  legitimate  authority. 
A  state  or  condition  in  which  either  of  these  elements  is  absent, 
is  a  state  of  bondage.  Now  this  state  of  bondage  is  the  condition 
of  all  who  are  not  the  children  of  God. 

In  the  first  place,  all  such  persons  are  in  subjection  to  sin. 
Sin  rules  in  them  as  the  dominant  master  of  all  their  actions. 
Sin  pervades  all  their  purposes.  Sin  animates  all  their  hopes. 
Sin  gives  color  to  all  their  desii'es.    Sin  leavens  all  their  emotions 


TRUE  FREEDOM.  ng 

and  affections.  Sin  directs  their  whole  course  of  conduct ;  it 
gives  character  to  every  product  of  their  intellect,  their  imagin- 
ation, and  their  fancy.  Every  power  of  their  souls  is  under  the 
dominion  of  sin.  But  this  subjection  is  voluntary,  and  one  of 
the  elements  of  slavery  would  thus  seem  to  be  wanting.  For  no 
man  can  say,  that  when  he  yields  himself  up  as  the  servant  of 
sin,  any  power  from  without  coerces  his  will.  Oh  no !  it  is  your 
boast  that  you  are  free  agents,  and  this  it  is  that  renders  your 
bondage  to  sin  not  only  a  misfortune,  but  a  crime.  But  if  your 
servitude  to  sin  is  voluntary,  how  then  according  to  our  definition 
can  it  be  called  a  condition  of  slavery  ? 

I  answer,  in  the  first  place,  because  the  other  element  in  true 
freedom  is  wanting.  The  sinner  is  the  voluntary  slave  of  sin, 
but  sin  is  a  usurper  /  you  have  voluntarily  subjected  yourselves 
to  an  illegitimate  authority.  What  right  has  sin  to  claim  lord- 
ship over  you  who  belong  to  God  as  your  rightful  Master  ?  In 
becoming  the  servants  of  sin,  you  have  thrown  off  your  allegiance 
to  God,  and  as  He  is  your  only  rightful  M^ter,  you  are  slaves. 

But  in  the  second  place,  in  a  very  important  sense,  your  servi- 
tude to  sin  is  involuntary.  That  is,  it  is  not  engaged  in  with 
the  full  consent  of  all  the  powers  of  your  nature.  Both  reason 
and  conscience  protest  against  it  all  the  time.  In  the  interval  be- 
tween the  revels  of  the  passions,  reason  lifts  her  voice  and  tells 
you,  sin  is  folly  and  madness.  Conscience,  with  still  small  voice, 
distinct  but  low,  utters  her  protest  against  this  subjection  to  sin, 
and  declares  that  it  is  wrong  and  ruin.  Now  the  structm-e  of 
man  essentially  considered,  the  original  constitution  of  his  soul, 
and  the  design  and  meaning  of  that  constitution,  are  not  to  be 
mistaken.  Keason  and  conscience  are  his  ordained  guides ;  he 
knows  and  feels  that  God  ordained  them  to  be  his  guides,  and 
their  utterances  are  in  themselves  above  everything  else.  Hence 
a  created  mind  whose  will  acts  in  obedience  to  conscience  and  rea- 
son, rises  to  the  true  ideal  of  a  perfect  moral  being.  This  is  the 
highest  freedom  ;  it  is  power,  it  is  glory.  The  will  in  any  being 
is  truly  free  and  truly  strong,  when  it  is  thus  determined  and 
controlled. 

When,  then,  the  will  is  in  subjection  to  these  ordained  author- 


130  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

ities — these  vicegerents  of  God  in  the  soul,  the  whole  man  is  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  original  constitution  of  his  nature,  and 
he  is  free  in  the  highest  conceivable  sense.  But  in  the  um-egen- 
«rate  soul  there  is  a  continual  schism ;  for  although  reason  and 
conscience  assert  their  right  to  rule  supreme,  they  can  put  forth 
no  activity  out  of  themselves  to  control  the  will.  They  can  only 
present  truth  and  duty  to  the  mind  ;  they  cannot  coerce  the  re- 
bellious will  into  conformity  with  their  decisions ;  and  sin,  or  the 
total  depravity  of  man's  nature,  gains  the  mastery,  stifles  the  pro- 
tests, drowns  the  voices  of  these  heaven-appointed  guides,  and 
the  man  is  thus  bound  in  chains  by  sin  and  becomes  his  slave. 
In  this  sense  his  bondage  is  a  forcible  coercion  of  his  nature.  If 
by  any  spiritual  legerdemain  the  service  of  sin  could  be  made  to 
appear  reasonable  and  right,  the  struggle  in  the  soul  would  cease, 
and  this  bondage  to  sin  would  lose  one  of  its  most  bitter  ele- 
ments. But  since  this  is  impossible,  the  service  of  sin  will  always 
be  in  one  sense  involuntary,  as  long  as  reason  and  conscience  pro- 
test against  it.  It  is  indeed  true  that  a  man  may  be  brought  so 
far  under  the  dominion  of  sin,  that  he  seems  to  have  yielded  up 
every  power  of  his  soul,  so  that  he  seems  to  take  delight  in  his 
chains ;  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  his  condition  is  irk- 
some, in  order  to  prove  that  it  is  a  real  slavery. 

In  the  third  place,  the  service  of  sin  is  a  slavery,  because  no 
man  can  free  himself  from  it  at  pleasure.  This  is  the  most  pain- 
ful and  most  terrible  element  in  spiritual  bondage.  To  know 
that  in  one  sense  you  choose  it,  and  to  know  at  the  same  time 
that  even  if  you  try,  you  cannot  shake  off  your  chain — this, 
this  is  a  bondage  indeed.  Men  do  resolve  again  and  again,  that 
they  will  free  themselves  from  this  t}Tant.  But  after  all  their 
struggles,  he  retains  his  hold  upon  them.  How  often  has  this 
been  the  case  with  you,  my  hearer !  Have  you  not  again  and 
again  resolved  that  you  would  abandon  your  sinful  life  and  be- 
come virtuous  and  good,  and  after  frequent  and  protracted  effort 
have  you  not  reached  the  settled  conviction  that  you  are  prac- 
tically unable  to  free  yourself  from  this  galling  yoke  ?  Ah  ! 
the  evil  is  found,  by  expenence,  to  lie  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
convictions  of  the  reason  and  the  demands  of  the  conscience. 


TRUE  FREEDOM.  12I 

Tou  have  realized,  as  have  all  who  have  made  similar  efforts, 
that  sin  has  possession  of  your  tastes,  inclinations,  affections,  and 
desires;  that  you  are  slaves  to  sin,  because  these  elements  in 
your  nature  are  totally  depraved  and  corrupted. 

Kow,  as  no  amount  of  direct  effort  on  your  part  can  change 
your  heart,  you  can  never  free  yourself  from  this  state  of  slavery 
any  more  than  the  Ethiopian  can  change  his  skin  or  the  leopard 
his  spots. 

The  consciousness  of  every  man  authenticates  this  statement, 
without  any  appeal  to  the  Word  of  God  for  confirmation. 

Here,  then,  are  all  the  elements  of  the  most  abject  slavery. 

First,  subjection  ;  second,  involuntary  subjection  ;  thu-d,  in- 
voluntary subjection  to  a  usurper;  fourth,  a  subjection  from 
which  you  cannot  free  yourself;  and  to  render  it  more  bitter 
and  degrading  still,  "  involuntary  subjection  to  a  usui'per,  from 
which  you  cannot  free  yourself,  and  yet  voluntary  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  render  the  slave  morally  guilty  for  remaining  a 
bondman." 

This,  this  is  a  slavery  from  which  a  man  may  well  groan  to  be 
free — well  might  he  cry  out  in  the  agony  of  his  fruitless  strug- 
gles for  deliverance,  Oli,  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  de- 
liver me  from  this  body  of  death  ? 

This  would  seem  to  be  enough  to  justify  the  declaration  that 
most  men  are  slaves ;  but  this  is  not  all.  The  slavery  to  sin  is 
only  one  of  the  chains  which  bind  the  sinner. 

This  subjection  to  a  tyrant  and  usurper  brings  the  man  into 
a  state  of  bondage  to  another,  but  in  this  case  a  legitimate  au- 
thority. It  brings  him  directly  under  a  bondage  to  the  law  of 
God.  Here  the  authority  is  legitimate ;  but  the  bondage  is 
wholly  involuntary.  In  this  case  the  tliraldom  is  that  of  a 
criminal  as  contrasted  with  the  freedom  of  a  loyal  subject.  The 
latter  is  bound,  too,  by  the  law,  and  as  long  as  he  obeys  it,  he  is 
protected  by  the  strong  arm  of  his  sovereign  in  the  enjoyment 
of  life  and  liberty,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  He  who 
transgresses  that  law  is  bound  ;  but  bound  by  its  penalties.  He 
is  restrained  of  his  liberty  by  the  prison-walls  which  the  law 
has  provided  for  those  who  tlirow  off  its  allegiance.     This  is  the 


122  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

bondage  of  him  who  has  become  the  servant  of  sin.  He  has 
rendered  himself  obnoxious  to  the  penalties  of  the  law  which  he 
was  bound  to  obey,  by  swearing  fealty  to  another  and  a  hostile 
power.  He  is  a  traitor  under  arrest  awaiting  his  trial  and  his 
doom.  He  is  a  captured  fugitive,  cowering  under  fear  of  the 
lash.  He  is  a  prisoner  on  parole  ;  but  not  set  free— a  convict 
whom  justice  may  spare  from  immediate  punishment,  but  against 
whom  the  law  has  pronounced  the  sentence  of  condemnation. 

Now,  consider  some  of  the  elements  of  terror  in  this  bondage 
to  the  Law  of  God. 

What  I  wish  you  to  do,  is  to  look  steadily  at  the  facts  of  your 
condition  as  bondmen  under  a  violated  law. 

First.  The  first  fact  is  that  this  bondage  to  the  law  is  a  state 
of  actual  condemnation  to  an  eternal  punishment.  You  act  as  if 
your  case  were  not  yet  adjudicated,  as  if  sentence  had  not  yet 
been  pronounced  against  you.  But,  my  hearer,  the  Scripture  de- 
clares that  you  are  condemned  already.  You  seem  to  think  that 
the  probation  which  God  gives  you  is  precisely  similar  to  that 
which  He  gave  to  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  garden  of  Eden ;  and 
that  you  are  free  to  choose  for  yourselves,  whether  you  shall  be 
classed  among  the  loyal  subjects  of  your  King,  or  whether  you 
will  renounce  His  authority ;  whereas,  the  very  truth  is,  that  you 
are  criminals,  arrested,  tried,  convicted,  and  condenmed ;  and 
only  awaiting  the  execution  of  a  sentence  which  has  been  delayed 
at  the  sovereign  pleasure  of  God.  You  stand  as  if  coolly  bal- 
ancing in  your  mind,  whether  or  not  you  will  choose  to  be  lost ; 
whereas  the  very  truth  is,  that  you  are  already  lost.  You  seem  to 
act  as  if  you  supposed  that  you  may  at  any  time  release  yourself 
from  captivity  to  the  law  of  God,  and  walk  forth  to  freedom 
the  moment  you  choose  to  signify  your  willingness  to  renew 
your  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Sovereign  whose  authority  you 
Lave  renounced,  whose  law  you  have  broken  ;  whereas,  if,  from 
this  hour  forward,  you  should  keep  the  whole  law,  you  would 
Btill  be  a  condemned  criminal  and  justly  exposed  to  Divine  wrath. 
It  is  because  you  do  not  realize  this,  that  you  sit  here  uncon- 
cerned about  your  spiritual  condition.  Oh  !  if  you  unconverted 
men  and  women  in  this  assembly  could  realize  that  you  are  lost 


TRUE  FREEDOM.  123 

sinners,  lost  sinners,  sinners  upon  whom  the  wrath  of  God 
is  actually  abiding — oh  !  terrible  words  ! — the  wrath  of  God  ! 
you  would  be  unable  to  restrain  your  cries, — you  would  fill  this 
vaulted  roof  with  wailing  and  lamentation,  and  prostrate  your- 
selves in  supplication,  crying  out,  God  be  merciful  to  us  sinners. 

And  this  leads  me  to  speak  of  another  element  of  terror  in  this 
bondage  to  the  law. 

It  is  a  bondage  from  which  you  cannot  redeem  yourselves. 
You  began  life  bankrupt,  and  every  hour  of  your  existence  has 
only  plunged  you  deeper  into  debt.  Like  those  imprisoned  for 
debt,  the  very  condition  in  which  you  have  been  placed  has  pre- 
cluded the  possibility  of  your  ever  liquidating  your  obligations. 

Repentance  will  not  free  you  from  this  bondage,  any  more 
than  the  regrets  of  the  spendthrift  will  deliver  him  from  the 
debtor's  prison.  Absolute  and  complete  reformation  of  hfe,  were 
this  possible,  will  not  release  you,  any  more  than  tlie  payment  of 
all  your  future  expenses  will  settle  the  debts  you  have  heretofore 
contracted. 

Here,  then,  is  another  fact  of  dreadful  import  in  the  sinner's 
bondage  to  the  Law  of  God — nothing  he  can  do  will  release  him 
from  its  dreadful  penalties. 

Now,  men  realize  these  truths  with  different  degrees  of  dis- 
tinctness at  different  times.  Hence  there  is  a  third  element  in 
this  bondage  to  the  law  which  is  more  or  less  operative  in  making 
it  oppressive.  In  proportion  as  a  man  is  conscious  of  his  expos- 
ure to  the  penalty  of  the  law  and  of  his  inability  to  satisfy  its 
demands,  he  is  brought  under  what  the  Apostle  calls  a  bondage 
of  fear.  He  lives  all  his  lifetime  in  servile  dread  of  God's  vindic- 
tive wrath,  or  as  the  Apostle  has  it,  "  through  fear  of  death  is  all 
his  lifetime  subject  to  bondage  "  (Ileb.  ii.  15). 

This  apprehension  of  the  wrath  to  come  is  more  vivid  at  one 
time  than  at  another,  but  its  influence  is  never  wholly  absent 
from  the  soul.  It  poisons  every  cup  of  pleasure,  and  dashes 
every  draught  with  an  element  of  bitterness ;  it  is  the  thorn  that 
lies  half  concealed  beneath  every  rose — the  sting  that  envenoms 
life's  happiest  hours.  It  is  this  fear  of  death  that  sits  like  a 
nightmare  upon  your  spirits  and  that  casts  a  dark  shadow  over 


124  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

your  wbole  pathway  through  hfe.  It  reveals  itself  on  your  coun- 
tenances, and  even  in  your  gayest  hours  the  shrewd  physiog- 
nomist can  discern  the  traces  of  its  presence  in  the  permanent 
lineaments  of  your  faces.  They  who  thus  live  in  bondage  to  the 
law  are  aptly  described  by  our  Saviour  as  "  weary  and  heavy 
laden."  You  often  try  to  shake  this  burden  off ;  and  when  ab- 
sorbed in  business  or  intoxicated  with  the  pleasures  of  life,  you 
do  succeed  in  forgetting  it  for  a  moment;  but  when  released 
from  the  struggles  of  the  market  and  the  toils  of  the  counting- 
room,  you  sit  down  to  calm  reflection  ;  or  when  suddenly  arrested 
by  the  death  of  some  one  whom  God  has  struck  down  either  in 
His  love  or  His  wrath,  this  fear  of  death  and  of  coming  judgment 
casts  a  shadow  upon  your  souls. 

Here,  ihexi.,  are  the  three  prominent  features  in  the  sinner's 
bondage  to  the  law : 

{a.)  Present  condemnation  and  consequent  exposure  to  instant 
wrath. 

(5.)  Utter  inability  to  redeem  himself. 

(c.)  Servile  dread  of  death  and  its  consequences. 

Here,  then,  is  a  threefold  bondage  of  the  unregenerate  and  un- 
forgiven  sinner — a  slavery  to  sin,  to  the  law,  and  to  the  fear  of 
death. 

Have  I  not  proved  the  proposition  with  which  I  began,  that 
most  men  are  slaves?  Let  us  now  contrast  with  this  wretched 
condition  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 

From  this  slavery  the  Son  of  God  came  to  set  us  all  free.  If 
the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  in- 
deed, free  indeed ;  t.  ^.,  the  freedom  which  the  Son  gives  in- 
volves all  the  elements  of  true  freedom.  This  freedom  is  not 
a  condition  of  irresponsibility,  or  of  exemption  from  the  claims 
of  law  ;  but  it  consists  essentially  in  a  voluntary  subjection  to  the 
legitimate  sovereign  of  the  soul.  It  is  a  freedom  which  is  se- 
cured by  the  actual  dethronement  of  the  usurper,  sin,  and  the 
actual  redemption  of  the  sinner  from  his  bondage  to  the  law. 
As  our  bondage  was  a  twofold  bondage  to  sin  and  to  God's  law, 
the  freedom  which  the  Son  confers  is  a  twofold  enfranchisement. 


TRUE  FREEDOM.  125 

The  first  chain  which  is  knocked  off  by  the  Son '  is  the  chain 
of  the  law.  Christ  redeems  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  i.  e. 
from  its  condemnation.  Hence,  says  the  Apostle,  there  is  there- 
fore now  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus.  By 
nature,  we  were  the  children  of  wrath,  but  now  God  lias  accepted 
us  in  the  beloved.  At  the  very  instant  at  which  we  became  the 
children  of  God,  by  faith  in  Christ,  we  were  redeemed  by  His 
vicai'ious  atonement  from  the  penalty  of  the  law ;  we  entered  at 
once,  on  the  instant,  into  a  new  relation  to  God ;  we  came 
under  a  new  dispensation,  which  is  one  of  grace  and  pardon. 
"We  are  no  more  under  the  law,  but  under  grace. 

The  moment  we  become  united  to  Christ  by  believing  on  Him, 
the  penalty  of  the  law,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  is  abrogated 
and  the  demands  of  the  law  upon  us  are  fully  satisfied.  As  the 
debts  of  a  wife  must  be  discharged  by  her  husband  ;  and  as  by 
her  mai'riage  all  her  maiden  obligations  are  at  once  transferred  to 
him,  so  the  believer  being  married  to  Christ,  and  having  become 
His  bride,  becomes  a  '■''femme  covert^''  and  is  no  longer  respon- 
sible to  the  law.  Says  Luther,  "  Everything  which  Christ  has 
becomes  the  property  of  the  believing  soul.  Everything  the  soul 
has  becomes  the  property  of  Christ.  Christ  possesses  all  blessings 
and  eternal  life ;  these  are,  therefore,  thenceforward  the  property 
of  the  soul.  The  soul  has  all  its  iniquities  and  sins ;  these  become 
thenceforward  the  property  of  Christ.  It  is  then  that  a  blessed 
exchange  commences.  Christ  the  Almighty  and  Eternal  taking 
to  Himself  by  the  nuptial  ring  of  faith  all  the  sins  of  tlie  believer, 
those  sins  are  lost  and  abolished  in  him  ;  for  no  sin  dwells  before 
His  infinite  righteousness.  Thus  by  faith  the  believer's  soul  is 
delivered  from  sins  and  clothed  with  the  eternal  righteousness  of 
her  bridegroom,  Christ.  Oh,  happy  union  1  the  rich,  the  noble, 
the  holy  bridegroom  takes  in  marriage  his  poor,  guilty,  and  de- 
spised spouse,  delivers  her  from  every  evil,  and  enriches  her  with 
the  most  precious  blessings." 

By  one  single  blow  Christ,  the  Son,  redeems  us  from  captivity 
to  the  law,  knocks  off  our  chains,  opens  the  prison  door,  and  we 
become  as  really  free  from  the  guilt  of  sin  as  if  we  had  never 
sinned  at  all.    This  was  the  freedom  of  which  Isaiah  spoke  when 


126  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

he  represents  the  great  deliverer  as  saying,  "  The  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because  the  Lord  hath  appointed  me  to 
preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the 
captives,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound." 

This  is  the  first  element  in  the  freedom  wherewith  Christ 
makes  His  people  free.  So  far  as  they  are  concerned,  the  penalty 
of  the  law  is  abolished. 

My  Christian  brethren,  you  have  heard  all  this  before.  Do 
you,  however,  realize  the  full  import  of  these  truths  ?  Do  you 
know  that  the  true  children  of  God  are  at  this  moment  as  free 
from  all  liability  to  punishment  as  if  they  had  already  reached 
their  home  in  heaven  ?  Now,  is  not  this  almost  too  good  to  be 
true  ?  But  it  is  true.  Hear !  oh  hear,  ye  disconsolate  believers, 
hear  again  the  glorious  Gospel,  the  glorious  good  neios,  which  I 
am  commissioned  to  sound  once  more  in  your  ears — proclaim  it 
to  every  weeping  Christian  whom  you  may  meet.  There  is  now., 
i.  e.,  at  the  present  time,  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in 
Christ  Jesus.  Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect  ?  It  is  God  that  hath  justified  them,  who  is  there  to  con- 
demn them  ? 

Do  you  believe  this,  and  do  you  realize  this,  and  yet  remain  a 
poor,  desponding,  downcast  mourner  ?  Oh  !  the  thing  is  impos- 
sible. I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  impossible  for  you  to  mourn, 
although  you  are  really  pardoned.  Many  a  poor  child  of  God 
does  mourn,  not  because  he  does  not  believe  this  truth,  but  be- 
cause it  is  a  point  he  longs  to  know, — Am  I  His,  or  am  I  not  ? 

But  what  I  do  mean  is,  that  if  you  realized  what  it  is  to  be  par- 
doned, if  you  only  knew  how  full  and  complete  is  the  transfer  of 
your  guilt  to  Jesus,  you  would  dry  your  tears  forever  and  never 
weep  any  more.  If  you  only  knew  the  full  import  of  the  doc- 
trine ;  if  you  could  only  realize  that  God  does  not  half-way  jus- 
tify a  believer,  that  He  pardons  him  fully  and  freely  for  every 
Ein,  and  regards  him  as  forever  redeemed  from  the  law,  you 
would  become  a  joyful,  cheerful  Christian  ;  you  would  return  to 
your  houses  this  day  with  songs  and  everlasting  joy  upon  your 
heads. 


TRUE  FREEDOM.  127 

But  tlie  work  of  our  enfrancliisement  would  be  only  partially 
accomplished  if  Christ  freed  us  only  from  the  curse  of  the  law. 
You  remember  our  bondage  is  twofold.  We  were  also  under 
the  dominion  of  the  usurper,  sin.  Now,  to  complete  the  work, 
Christ  fulfils  to  believers  His  promise  that  "  sin  shall  not  have 
dominion  over  them."  Christ  dethrones  this  tyrant,  unseats  this 
usurper  by  the  actual  exertion  of  a,  supernatural  power  in  the 
soul.  He  changes  the  heart,  regenerates  the  affections,  and  re- 
leases the  will  from  its  bondage  to  Satan  and  to  sin.  This  regen- 
eration of  the  soul  is  a  real,  miraculous  work,  wrought-  in  the 
bosom  of  every  man  whom  God  has  justified  in  the  eye  of  the 
law. 

By  strildng  off  the  first  chain,  Christ  freed  us  from  the  penalty ; 
by  a  second  blow,  He  frees  us  from  the  power  of  sin.  In  the 
first  act  of  justification.  He  gives  us  a  righteousness  without  us  ; 
in  the  second,  He  works  a  holiness  icithin  us.  The  former  is  a 
cause  of  which  the  latter  is  an  effect ;  our  justification  is  effected 
by  Christ  as  a  Priest,  and  has  sole  reference  to  the  guilt  of  sin  ; 
our  sanctification  is  effected  by  Him  as  a  King,  and  has  respect 
to  the  dominion  of  sin.  The  former  act  deprives  sin  of  its 
damning  power ;  the  latter  of  its  reigning  power.  In  the  former 
act.  He  magnifies  the  law  and  makes  it  honorable ;  because  the 
law  has  legitimate  authority  and  cannot  be  set  aside  ;  it  must  be 
equitably  satisfied.  As  a  priest,  He  makes  atonement  to  its  in- 
sulted majesty  and  buys  us  out  of  our  captivity.  But  in  the 
latter  act,  He  comes  riding  as  a  victorious  king  to  dethrone  sin, 
the  usurper,  and  to  vindicate  His  rightful  dominion  in  the  soul. 
By  sending  His  Spirit  into  these  hearts.  His  people,  who  were 
once  the  willing  slaves  of  sin,  are  made  His  willing  subjects  in 
the  day  of  His  power,  and  He  tears  them  away  from  the  grasp 
of  their  former  tyrant.  They  are  led  by  Him  as  captives  ;  but 
rejoicing  captives,  voluntary  subjects  to  their  rightful  Sovereign, 
and  thus  they  enter  upon  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of 
God.  Grace  reigns  triumphant,  and  they  are  free  from  the  power 
of  sin. 

This  is  the  triumphant  reply  which  the  Apostle  gives  to  all 
Antinomians,  and  to  those  who  would  charge  him  with  Antinorai- 


128  TRUE  FREEDOM, 

anism.  He  declares  that  those  who  are  justified  and  thereby 
freed  from  the  penahj  of  sin,  shall  be  also  freed  from  the  domin- 
ion of  sin.  Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ? 
God  forbid.  They  who  are  dead  to  the  guilt  of  sin  shall  be  pow- 
erfully delivered  from  its  predominant  influence.  They  are  not 
now  under  the  law,  but  under  grace ;  and  therefore  they  shall 
have  that  holiness  which  is  not  the  fruit  of  the  law,  but  is  the  re- 
sult of  that  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  His  people  free. 
Christ  has  now  become  the  absolute  master  of  their  hearts,  and 
He  promises  that  He  will  reign  in  them  by  the  invincible  power 
of  victorious  grace. 

Being  made  free  from  sin,  says  the  Apostle,  they  become  the 
servants  of  righteousness  (Rom.  vi.  18).  But  you  ask,  If  all  this 
is  true,  how  do  you  account  for  the  fact,  admitted  by  all,  that 
true  believers  are  liable  to  sin,  and  do  actually  commit  grievous 
sin?  To  this  I  reply  by  an  illustration.  When  a  tyrant  has 
been  dethroned,  the  effects  of  his  misrule  are  visible  long  after 
he  has  ceased  to  reign.  His  evil  influence  is  operative  for  many 
years  after  his  supremacy  has  been  destroyed. 

This,  I  think,  is  a  fair  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  sin 
dwells  in  believers  long  after  their  deliverance  from  its  bondage. 
It  dwells  in  them  as  a  dethroned,  but  not  as  a  dead  tyrant,  who 
is  continually  warring  with  the  spirit  to  regain  his  lost  ascend- 
ency. But,  blessed  be  God !  we  have  His  word  and  promise  that 
sin  shall  never  regain  his  dominion.  We  shall  be  kept,  by  the 
power  of  God^  not  by  our  own  power,  through  faith  unto  salva- 
tion. 

Having  begun  a  good  work  in  us.  He  will  perform  it  until  the 
day  of  Jesus  Christ  (Phil.  i.  6).  If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make 
you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed. 

And  now  what  becomes  of  the  third  chain  that  bound  us — 
the  fear  of  death  ?  Why,  that  falls  off  of  itself.  Oh  death, 
where  is  now  thy  sting  ?  The  true  believer  no  longer  fears  this 
once  dreaded  enemy.  He  knows  indeed,  that  for  a  time  he 
must  yield  his  body  to  the  grave,  but  there  are  no  terrors  now 
that  lie  beyond  it.    His  fears  have  all  been  conquered  by  the 


.,      TRUE  FREEDOM.  129 

power  of  that  cross  whereon  his  debt  was  paid  and  his  sins  were 
slain.  Death  is  now  to  him  the  gate  to  endless  joy — the  way  of 
nearest  approach  to  the  court  of  the  monarch  whom  he  loves. 
He  is  no  longer  a  slave,  but  a  son.  He  obeys  because  he  loves. 
He  renders  homage,  but  it  is  not  servile.  He  walks  a  freeman, 
an  heir  of  God,  within  the  very  palace  of  his  King.  He  is  now 
the  brother  of  the  Captain  of  his  salvation.  Nay,  he  is  himself  a 
king.  Plis  inheritance  is  incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  fadeth  not 
away.  He  is  an  heir  of  God,  a  joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ. 
The  Son  has  made  him  free,  and  he  is  free  indeed.  Glorious 
hopes  inspire  him.  He  walks  the  earth  erect,  and  conscious  of 
his  noble  destiny.  All  things  are  his,  Paul,  Apollos,  Cephas, 
the  world,  life,  death,  things  present,  things  to  come,  all  are  his, 
he  is  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's. 

He  rises  superior  to  the  ills  of  this  present  life ;  he  masters 
and  triumphs  over  all  the  evils  of  his  earthly  lot.  He  reckons 
that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time  are  not  worthy  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  glory  that  shall  follow.  He  is  free  because*  the 
love  of  Christ  is  his  constraining  motive.  He  is  happy  because 
he  knows  that  nothing  can  separate  him  from  God's  love.  His 
galling  chains  have  all  been  broken,  and  he  is  now  led  by  the 
cords  of  love.  This  is  liberty  indeed,  the  glorious  liberty  of  a 
willing  subject — a  full  deliverance  from  his  former  bondage  con- 
sistent with  justice,  satisfactory  to  God,  and  therefore  satisfactory 
to  the  believer's  own  conscience. 

No  longer  the  slave  of  sin,  his  accusing,  condemning  con- 
science is  pacified ;  his  reason  is  satisfied,  and  the  old  schism  in 
his  soul  is  at  an  end.  Being  justified,  he  has  peace  with  God 
and  peace  with  himself.  Being  renewed,  and  sanctified  although 
only  partially,  he  is  filled  with  spiritual  joy.  Being  adopted  as  a 
son,  he  has  access  to  God.  He  has  freedom  and  enlargement  in  his 
communion  with  God.  If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you 
free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.  Now  there  is  no-  happier  being 
on  earth  than  he  whom  the  truth  has  thus  made  free.. 

It  would  be  easy  to  show,  if  the  time  would  permit,  the  histor- 
ical as  well  as  the  logical  connection  between  spiritual  and  civil 
freedom.     In  proportion  to  the  prevalence  of  these  doctrines 


l30  TRUE  FREEDOM. 

among  a  people,  will  they  demand  and  secure  political  liberty. 
No  king,  no  despot,  is  able  to  enslave  a  nation  of  Christ's  free- 
men. Souls  emancipated  from  sin  and  Satan  are  not  the  materi- 
als out  of  which  Russian  serfs  and  Italian  lazzaroni  can  be  made. 
Let  men  once  learn  the  lesson  that  the  "  Son  of  Man  hath  power 
on  earth  to  forgive  sins,"  and  that  they  need  no  priestly  interces- 
sor to  come  between  them  and  their  God,  and  the  figment  of  a 
sin-forgiving  church,  which  for  centuries  held  men  in  civil  as  well 
as  ecclesiastical  bondage,  is  exploded.  It  is  to  the  promulgation  of 
the  great  doctrine  of  our  text,  and  the  great  system  of  theology 
which  is  bound  up  in  it,  that  we  owe  the  civil  liberty  which  we 
this  day  enjoy. 

I  need  not  remind  you  that  this  is  the  anniversary  of  the 
day  *  on  which  our  fathers  rose  up  in  the  majesty  of  insulted 
nature,  to  vindicate  the  rights  of  man.  The  political  prin- 
ciples in  the  maintenance  of  which  they  shed  their  blood, 
and  to  which  they  pledged  "  their  lives,  their  fortunes,  and  their 
sacred  honor,"  were  tlie  direct  outgrowth  of  their  religious  con- 
victions— convictions  which  they  inherited  from  the  great  lead- 
ers of  the  Reformation.  If  you  would  transmit  unimpaired  to 
your  children  the  liberties  you  now  enjoy,  you  must  cherish  as  a 
sacred  legacy  the  faith  of  your  revolutionary  sires.  Let  it  then 
be  inscribed  on  your  banners,  and  let  it  mingle  with  the  shouts 
of  a  jubilant  nation,  "  If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free, 
ye  shall  be  free  indeed." 

*  Preached  in  the  Music  Hall  in  Cincinnati  on  Sunday,  July  4,  1880. 


XII. 

LIGHT. 

"  Te  are  the  light  of  the  world." — Matthew  v.  14. 

Our  Lord  is  here  addressing  His  disciples  and  the  multitude 
who  had  gathered  together  to  listen  to  His  wondrous  words  of 
truth  and  grace.  It  cannot  be  that  He  intended  to  apply  what 
He  says  in  this  and  the  preceding  verse  to  all  His  hearers  indis- 
criminately. Many  of  them  were  the  wicked  people,  who,  after- 
ward, had  a  hand  in  His  death.  Most  of  those  who  listened  were 
not  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  were  far  from  being  in  any  sense 
the  light  of  the  world.  The  transition  from  the  general  address 
to  the  whole  multitude  to  the  special  address  to  His  disciples  is 
made  at  verse  eleven,  in  which  He  pronounces  a  benediction 
upon  those  who  suffer  for  His  sake.  Ye  who  in  your  poverty 
have  hungered  for  and  obtained  righteousness;  ye  who  have 
been  addressed  as  having,  like  the  prophets  before  you,  the  in- 
gratitude, scorn,  and  persecution  of  the  world  as  your  earthly  re- 
ward ;  ye  who  correspond  in  character  with  those  whom  I  have 
just  pronounced  "  blessed,"  "  ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  In 
another  place  Christ  says  of  Himself,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the 
world,"  and  in  the  Old  Testament  prophecies  He  is  called  the 
"Sun  of  Righteousness";  and  the  aged  Simeon,  when  holding 
Him  an  infant  in  his  arms,  describes  Him  as  a  "  light  to  lighten 
the  Gentiles." 

In  what  senses,  then,  does  Christ  compare  His  disciples  to 
light? 

I.  Light  is  the  appropriate  emblem  of  purity.  Of  all  the 
works  of  God,  none  approaches  light  in  its  freedom  from  every- 
thing like  impurity.    Philosophy  tells  us  that  it  may  be  analyzed 


132  LIGHT. 

80  as  to  exhibit  in  its  component  rays  the  colors  of  the  rainbow ; 
but  even  these  are  free  from  all  appearance  of  defilement.  We 
speak  of  pure,  white  light.  Poetry  uses  it  as  the  emblem  of  un- 
approachable, immaculate  innocence.  It  contracts  no  stain  from 
the  foulness  of  any  medium  through  which  it  may  pass,  nor  does 
it  pollute  anything  upon  which  it  may  fall.  Even  the  purest 
water  may  be  rendered  foul  and  unfit  for  use ;  the  air  of  heaven 
may  be  tainted  with  unwholesome  vapors ;  and  thus  both  air  and 
water  may  become  the  vehicle  of  disease  and  the  cause  of  death ; 
but  light  emerges  from  the  medium  through  which  it  passes  as 
unsullied  and  inoffensive  as  when  it  first  gushed  forth  from  the 
orb  in  which  it  originated. 

It  falls  on  the  petals  of  the  lily,  and  leaves  no  stain  upon  their 
velvety  surface ;  it  falls  on  the  damask  of  the  rose,  and  it  blushes 
in  unsullied  beauty ;  it  kisses  the  fair  cheek  of  the  maiden,  and 
her  virgin  purity  is  undefiled ;  it  falls  on  the  black  cloud,  and, 
lo !  it  becomes  a  radiant  glory ;  it  falls  on  the  dark,  blue  moun- 
tains, and  the  far-off  heights  are  clothed  in  untarnished  gold  ;  it 
falls  on  the  dew-drop,  and  the  green  sward  is  decked  with  spark- 
ling gems ;  it  falls  on  the  cataract  as  the  dark  waters  plunge  into 
the  abyss,  and  the  white  foam  reflects  it  back  to  the  eye  of  the 
beholder,  unsullied  by  the  contact. 

Thus  light  is  a  beautiful  emblem  of  that  moral  purity  which 
contracts  no  stain  from  contact  with  pollution,  and  which  lends 
its  own  lustre  to  whatever  comes  within  the  range  of  its  benign 
influence. 

II.  Light  is  used  as  an  emblem  of  hnowledge.  Ignorance  is 
likened  to  darkness.  As  those  who  are  in  the  dark  see  not,  and 
consequently  know  not  the  objects  wliich  surround  them  ;  and  as 
those  who  walk  in  the  light  have  a  clear  perception  of  external 
objects,  the  figure  is  eminently  appropriate.  Says  Isaiah  :  "  To 
the  law  and  to  the  testimony ;  if  they  speak  not  according  to  this 
word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in  them  ";  i.  «.,  they  are  des- 
titute of  knowledge.  So  the  Psalmist  says  :  "  The  entrance  of 
Thy  words  givetli  lighV^ ;  *'.<?.,  knowledge.  So  Solomon  says: 
"The  commandment  is  a  lamp,  the  law  is  lighV ;   i.  e.,  the 


LIGHT.  133 

source  of  knowledge.  So  Isaiah,  speaking  of  those  who  obscure 
the  truth  by  the  teacliing  of  error,  says  that  they  "  put  darkness 
for  ligTitP  Light  and  understanding  were  found  in  Daniel ;  i.  e., 
he  had  knowledge  and  discernment.  The  knowledge  of  God  is 
called  by  the  Apostle,  "  the  hght  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God."  "  To  walk  in  the  hght "  is  equivalent  to  knowing  the 
truth ;  "  to  have  the  eyes  of  the  understanding  enlightened,"  is 
equivalent  to  having  the  understanding  illuminated  with  spiritual 
knowledge. 

N^ow,  the  appropriateness  of  this  emblem  is  manifest  from  the 
fact  that  most  of  our  knowledge  of  the  external  world  comes  to 
us  through  the  agency  of  light.  The  ideas  which  we  have  of 
form,  though  to  some  extent  produced  by  the  sense  of  touch,  are 
mainly  due  to  the  sense  of  sight.  All  our  ideas  of  color  and  of 
material  beauty  are  derived  solely  through  the  instrumentality  of 
light.  In  the  beautiful  language  of  Dr.  March,  "  The  pupil  of 
the  eye  is  the  portal  through  which  light  brings  in  all  the  riches 
and  glories  of  the  earth  and  heavens  to  adorn  the  inner  chamber 
of  the  soul.  The  mind  sits  enthroned  as  a  sovereign  in  its  secret 
place,  and  this  swift-winged  messenger  comes  flying  with  intelli- 
gence from  every  point  in  the  whole  landscape,  and  from  the 
far-distant  orbs  of  heaven.  The  mind  has  only  to  lift  the  cur- 
tain of  the  eye,  and  millions  of  bright  heralds  rush  in  to  describe 
the  form  and  hue  and  order  of  everything  in  the  world  of  vision. 
Some  of  the  messengers  have  brought  their  tidings  in  an  instant, 
and  some  have  been  on  the  way  a  million  of  years  to  tell  me 
where. of  old  the  breath  of  God  blew  a  million  of  suns  into  flame, 
and  sent  them  forth  to  sing  and  shine  among  the  rival  spheres  of 
heaven.  And  as  I  stand  gazing  from  some  giddy  height,  it  is  as 
if  all  this  vast  and  varied  scene  were  the  creation  of  light  itself. 
Take  from  me  the  faculty  of  vision,  or,  what  would  be  the  same 
thing,  destroy  the  light,  and  in  place  of  all  that  wondrous  world 
of  beauty,  a  blank  and  pitiless  wall  of  darkness  shuts  me  in  on 
every  side." 

III.  Light  is  a  symbol  of  activity. 

Is  it  possible  to  conceive  of  anything  more  subtle  and  active 


ie4  LIGHT. 

than  a  beam  of  light  as  emitted  from  the  sun  ?  Philosophers 
tell  us  that  light  travels  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand  miles  in  a  second.  But  it  is  not  only  the  rapidity  with 
which  it  travels  that  conveys  the  idea  of  its  activity,  but  the 
fact  that  its  very  existence  as  light  depends  upon  its  rapid  prog- 
ress from  one  point  to  another.  If  it  could  be  conceived  of  as 
pausing  in  its  rapid  flight,  it  would  lose  its  character  as  light. 
When  it  falls  on  a  black  surface  that  absorbs  it,  and  thus  termi- 
nates its  passage,  it  terminates  its  existence,  it  ceases  to  he  light 
— it  becomes  darkness.  So,  too,  a  luminous  body,  like  the  sun, 
or  a  candle,  would  cease  to  be  a  light  the  very  moment  that  the 
rays  which  stream  forth  from  it  should  cease  to  pulsate  through 
the  air.  Thus,  whether  we  think  of  light  as  an  emanation  fi-om 
a  luminous  orb,  or  of  the  orb  itself,  it  suggests  the  idea  of  rest- 
less, unwearied  activity  and  action. 

Follow  in  imagination  a  single  beam  as  emitted  from  the  sun. 
With  inconceivable  velocity  it  begins  its  excursion  into  the  un- 
limited fields  of  space.  It  flies  in  a  right  hne  toward  our  earth ; 
At  touches  our  atmosphere  and  is  at  once  refracted,  but  not  delayed 
in  its  mission.  Turned  aside  from  its  direct  line  of  approach,  it 
still  hurries  on  until  it  reaches  its  goal.  It  touches  the  summit  of 
the  hills,  and  then  leaps  down  to  the  valley ;  it  glances  upon  the 
pale  stream,  and  gilds  it  "  with  a  heavenly  alchemy  ";  reflected 
from  the  flashing  waters,  it  leaps  up  again  with  undrooping  ac- 
tivity to  gladden  the  eye  of  man,  or  to  "  kiss  with  golden  lip  the 
meadow  green." 

By  a  natural  transition  from  light  itself  as  an  object  of  thought 
to  its  effects  upon  nature  and  upon  all  living  things,  it  suggests 
still  more  vividly  the  idea  of  activity,  in  that  it  is  the  cause  of  all 
activity  in  men  and  animals. 

Every  morning  we  see  the  magic  influence  of  light  in  waking 
the  drowsy  world  to  life  and  motion.  All  is  stillness  and  repose  ; 
but  the  sun  pours  a  tide  of  glory  over  nature,  and  the  gloom  and 
horror  of  the  darkness  vanish.  The  early  lark  begins  to  carol 
to  the  rising  day  ;  the  squirrel  leaps  from  bough  to  bough  ;  low- 
ing herds  welcome  the  growing  light ;  the  blushing  morn  peeps 
through  the  windows  of  human  habitations,  and  then  the  smoke 


LIGHT.  135 

of  farm-houses  rises  on  the  distant  landscapes ;  the  silent  sea  of 
still  life  in  the  great  citj  begins  to  heave  and  roar  with  the  rising 
waves  of  toil  and  traffic ;  the  prattle  of  children  mingles  with 
the  clatter  of  wheels  and  the  cry  of  busy  men.  All  is  activity 
now,  where  but  an  hour  before  the  stillness  of  mimic  death 
reigned  supreme. 

Thus  light  in  its  source,  in  itself,  or  in  its  effects,  is  an  appro- 
priate emblem  of  life,  energy,  action. 

lY.  Light  is  a  symbol  of  unity. 

The  discoveries  and  generalizations  of  modern  science  have  re- 
vealed beyond  a  shadow  of  a  doubt  that  all  force  has  its  origin, 
i.  e.  its  ultimate  origin,  in  the  heat  of  the  sun  ;  and  what  is  true 
of  heat  is  true  of  light,  which  always  accompanies  the  produc- 
tion of  heat.  Thus,  to  take  a  representative  case :  "  I  hold  in  my 
hand  a  lock  of  cotton,  which  I  ignite ;  it  bursts  into  flame, 
and  yields  a  definite  amount  of  heat  and  light.  IS^ow,  precisely 
that  amount  of  heat  and  light  was  abstracted  from  the  sun  in 
order  to  form  that  bit  of  cotton.  This  is  a  type  of  the  whole. 
Every  tree,  every  combustible  substance  capable  of  yielding  light 
grows  and  flourishes  by  the  grace  and  bounty  of  the  one  central 
source  of  light.  The  very  lightning  is  his  transmuted  blaze. 
Every  fire  that  burns,  and  every  flame  that  glows,  every  flicker- 
ing taper  dispenses  light  which  originally  came  from  the 
Bun."  * 

Thus  it  is  literally  true  that  a  grand  unity  exists  among  all  the 
various  forms  in  which  light  appears  to  illuminate  the  darkness 
of  our  world.  It  is  the  self-same  ethereal  essence  that,  Proteus- 
like, assumes  a  million  shapes  and  hues.  Hence,  we  speak  of 
"  the  light  "  as  of  a  common  possession  of  all  ages,  races,  con- 
tinents, and  generations.  The  light  which  God  called  into  being 
at  the  beginning  by  His  potent  word,  is  the  one  unebbing  flood 
of  glory  that  has  been  bathing  the  world  in  radiance  since  order 
was  evoked  from  chaos. 

Thus  light  is  a  symbol  of  unity. 

*  Tyndall. 


136  LIGHT. 

Y.  This,  however,  does  not  exhaust  the  catalogue  of  concep- 
tions of  what  it  is  the  emblem. 

Light  is  the  symbol  of  heneficence  and  henedictions.  It  wei^e 
an  endless  task  to  enumerate  the  myriad  blessings  to  man  of 
which  light  is  the  cause  and  source.  It  tills  our  homes  with  joj 
and  gladness ;  it  reveals  to  us  the  smile  of  love,  the  tender  look 
of  affection,  the  gushing  tear  of  sympathy ;  it  is  the  one  indis- 
pensable instrument  of  all  human  activity  ;  it  brings  us  into  con- 
tact with  the  whole  external  world,  and  makes  it  available  for 
our  wants  and  comforts.  In  a  perfectly  scientific  as  well  as  a 
poetical  sense,  it  is  the  source  and  producer  of  life.  To  appre- 
ciate the  blessings  which  light  confers,  we  have  only  to  picture 
the  effect  of  its  sudden  extinction.  Where  there  is  no  light, 
there  is  neither  animal  nor  vegetable  life.  If  the  light  of  the 
sun  should  be  put  out,  in  less  than  a  week  all  signs  of  life  would 
disappear  from  the  globe.  The  air  would  be  filled  with  deluges 
of  rain  and  suow ;  the  ocean,  the  lakes,  the  rivers  would  become 
as  solid  as  the  granite  of  the  mountains  ;  the  whole  world  would 
become  a  wilderness  of  death,  "  seasonless,  herbless,  treeless,  man- 
less,  lifeless." 

Lord  Byron,  in  his  "  Dream  of  Darkness,"  has  given  us  a 
grand  and  gloomy  sketch  of  the  consequences  of  the  supposed 
extinction  of  the  sun — a  conception  "  terrible  above  all  concep- 
tion of  known  calamity,  and  too  oppressive  to  the  imagination  to 
be  contemplated  with  pleasure,  even  in  the  faint  reflection  of 
poetry." 

Hence  it  is  that  the  presence  of  light  is  always  employed  as  a 
synonym  of  joy,  of  happiness,  of  comfort,  of  warmth,  of  peace ; 
and  its  absence,  to  call  up  to  the  imagination  the  terrible  images 
of  sorrow,  gloom,  desolation,  suffering,  aflliction,  and  hopeless 
despair. 

We  need  not  have  recourse  to  the  gloomy  dream  of  the  poet, 
which  represents  the  light  of  heaven  extinguished,  in  order  to 
appreciate  the  blessings  which  light  confers  upon  mankind.  If 
the  sources  of  even  our  artificial  light  were  destroyed,  so  that  no 
candle  or  torch  could  be  ignited  to  banish  the  darkness  from  our 
houses  and  streets,  after  the  sun  had  sunk  below  the  horizon,  the 


LIGHT.  137 

sum  total  of  human  happiness  would  be  immeasurably  abridged. 
Let  one  or  two  particulars  serve  as  examples  of  the  whole. 

The  student  could  no  longer  pursue  his  midnight  researches 
into  the  realms  of  knowledge ;  the  lonely  watcher  by  the  sick- 
bed would  sit  with  bowed  head,  and  long  for  the  morning ;  the 
streets  of  the  great  city  would  be  paced  with  nervous  dread  by 
those  whom  business  or  duty  should  drive  from  their  darkened 
dwellings  ;  the  mariner  would  dread  his  approach  to  the  land 
over  a  sea  upon  whose  dangerous  rocks  no  Pharos  flung  its 
beams  of  warning ;  the  halls  of  pleasure  would  be  deserted  by 
their  gay  votaries ;  the  temples  of  worship,  now  open  to  those 
who  would  end  their  Sabbath  with  sacred  songs  and  holy  prayers, 
would  be  closed  at  early  evening  ;  in  a  word,  how  dull  and  empty 
would  be  one-half  of  our  working  hours,  if  even  the  taper  lights 
of  our  own  kindling  were  irrevocably  extinguished !  The  cry 
would  go  up  from  our  whole  race  to  the  Giver  of  every  good 
and  perfect  gift  to  restore  to  us  light  in  our  dwellings,  that  there 
might  be  gladness  in  our  hearts.  "  Light !  "  "  light !  "  "  light ! " 
would  be  the  universal  prayer  at  the  hour  of  evening  sacrifice. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  blessings  which  light  diffuses  shows 
us  that  it  is  our  greatest  necessity,  and  that  it  is  an  eminently 
appropriate  symbol  of  beneficence  and  benedictions. 

Thus  we  have  seen  that  light  is  the  symbol  of  j)urity,  of 
Jcnowledge^  of  actwity,  of  unity,  and  of  hensjicence. 

Although  all  these  ideas  are  readily  suggested  by  the  word 
light,  yet,  when  our  Saviour  declares  that  His  followers  are  the 
light  of  the  world,  the  reference  was  probably  to  the  most  obvi- 
ous and  familiar  points  of  correspondence,  and  not  to  those  which 
are  recondite  or  latent.  Still,  we  need  not,  on  this  account,  ex- 
clude from  our  view  those  points  of  analogy  which  might  not  at 
first  sight  have  occurred  to  His  hearers.  The  thought  necessarily 
suggested  to  the  mass  of  His  hearers  would  be  that  of  communi- 
cating knowledge,  rectifying  error,  and  dispelling  the  gloom 
which  is  inseparable  from  a  state  of  spiritual  ignorance,  implying 
alienation  from  the  only  source  of  truth  and  goodness.  This 
office  was  to  be  performed,  this  influence  exerted,  by  the  follow- 


138  LIGHT. 

ers  of  Clirist  as  individuals  and  as  a  body.  Hence,  to  tlie  Church, 
as  a  whole,  or  to  each  individual  member  of  it,  the  address  is  ap- 
propriate :  "  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world." 

Now,  there  are  one  or  two  ideas  remotely  suggested  by  this 
figure,  which  I  wish  to  present : 

1.  Christians  are  like  lights,  because  lights  do  not  shine  for 
their  own  sake  alone.  The  very  end  for  which  a  lamp  is  lighted 
is  that  it  may  give  light  to  others.  "  Light,  in  order  to  be  valu- 
able, must  be  seen.  The  illuminating  influence  of  Christ's  disci- 
ples is  a  nullity,  without  actual  diffusion  on  their  part  and  actual 
perception  of  it  on  the  part  of  others.  To  claim  the  character, 
without  acting  in  accordance  with  it,  is  as  foohsh,  says  our  Sav- 
iour, as  to  build  a  tower  upon  a  hill  and  then  expect  it  to  be 
unseen.  If,  then.  Christians  are  lights,  they  must,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  shine,  i.  e.  they  must  be  the  source  of  divine 
and  saving  knowledge  to  the  world  ;  they  must  not  do  anything 
to  defeat  the  very  end  of  their  existence  by  conceahng  or  with- 
holding what  they  have  received,  not  only  for  themselves,  but  for 
the  benefit  of  others."  * 

2.  A  second  idea  suggested  by  comparing  Christians  to  a  light 
is,  that,  as  the  caudle  or  lamp  in  the  process  of  giving  light  is 
itself  consumed,  so  the  true  disciple  consumes  himself  in  the  act 
of  conferring  blessings  upon  the  world.  The  practical  bearing 
of  this  thought  is  of  immense  importance.  It  brings  home  to 
every  one  of  you,  my  brethren,  the  question  :  Why  has  God 
called  me  out  of  the  world  and  introduced  me  into  the  kingdom  of 
His  dear  Son  ?  Why  has  my  lot  been  cast  here  in  this  city,  this 
centre  from  which  stream  forth  such  stupendous  influences,  for 
good  or  for  evil,  upon  our  whole  land  ?  Did  He  send  His  grace 
into  ray  heart  and  convert  me,  that  I  only  might  be  saved  from 
hell  ;  and  did  His  design  stop  there  ?  Am  I  to  lock  myself  up 
in  my  safe  retreat  from  the  storm  of  divine  wrath,  and  look  out 
calmly  through  the  casement  of  my  fortress,  and  do  nothing  to 
save  those  who  are  perishing  all  around  me  ?  Must  I  make  no 
Bacrifices  for  the  sake  of  others  ?     Must  I  permit  the  Gospel  and 

*A.  Alexander. 


LIGHT.  139 

its  saving  ordinances  to  be  dispensed  with  a  niggardly  liand, 
when,  by  effort  and  self-denial  on  my  part,  it  may  be  made  the 
power  of  God  mito  the  salvation  of  the  hundreds  who  come  as 
temporary  sojourners  in  the  pleasant  places  where  the  lines  have 
fallen  to  me  ?  I  hear  you  answer,  "  No,  no ;  let  me  be  con- 
sumed, let  me  live  without  luxury,  let  me  eat  the  bitter  herbs  of 
poverty ;  but  let  me  not  withhold  the  bread  of  life  from  the 
hungry  souls  that  are  perishing  for  lack  of  knowledge.  Let  the 
oil  in  my  lamp  be  all  consumed  as  an  offering  upon  the  altar  of 
my  God.  Let  me  make  my  hght  to  shine,  though  it  be  exhausted 
in  contributing  its  feeble  blaze  to  the  grand  illumination  of  the 
world." 

3.  A  third  remark  I  wish  to  make,  is  that  the  illuminating 
influence  of  the  Church  as  a  whole  is  very  much  impaired  by  the 
failure  to  shine  of  any  of  its  members,  even  the  most  humble  and 
obscure.  In  order  to  bring  this  idea  prominently  before  your 
minds,  I  present  a  very  homely  and  familiar  illustration.  There 
are  certain  parts  of  many  large  public  halls  or  churches,  und^r 
the  galleries,  where  it  is  always  too  dark  to  read  the  Word  of 
God  or  to  see  the  hymn-book  at  a  night  service.  The  Httle  dim 
lamps  that  are  hung  at  long  intervals  along  the  galleries  are 
utterly  insufficient  for  the  purpose  of  illuminating  the  house. 
They  represent  those  dimly-burning  Christians  who  give  some 
light,  it  is  true,  but  not  enough  to  illuminate  the  circle  in  which 
God  has  hung  them  up  to  give  light  to  all  around.  IS^ow,  to 
carry  out  the  illustration,  suppose  that  on  some  unpropitious 
night,  even  one  of  these  should  go  out,  or  fail  to  be  lighted,  do 
you  not  see  that  all  who  sit  in  that  part  of  the  house  will  be  in 
comparative  darkness  ?  Of  what  avail  is  it  to  them  that  the  peo- 
ple or  the  choir  bask  in  a  flood  of  light  ?  Their  seats  are  not 
within  the  bright  cii'cle ;  and,  although  they  see  the  light  afar 
off,  it  does  not  serve  to  illuminate  them.  Just  so  it  is  with  many 
who  call  themselves  Christians.  They  are  the  centres  of  little 
circles  of  friends,  and  acquaintances,  and  relatives,  who,  having 
had  their  lot  cast  among  them,  are  dependent  upon  them,  and 
them  alone,  for  all  the  light  they  can  ever  get — the  light  of  a 
godly  example ;  the  light  of  a  holy  conversation ;  the  light  of 


140  LIGHT. 

devout  and  prayerful  daily  habits ;  the  light  of  patient  submission 
to  the  will  of  God  ;  the  light  of  holy  resignation  to  the  ills  of 
life.  Now  it  avails  them  nothing  that  these  lights  shine  in  other 
dwellings  and  upon  other  circles  of  society.  They  see  these 
lights  afar  off,  but  they  do  not  walk  in  their  salutary  beams ; 
they  sit  in  darkness  and  shadow,  because  those  whom  God  has 
hung  up  to  give  them  their  share  of  the  blessed  light  of  life  fail 
to  shine  upon  them. 

4.  Although  thoughts  crowd  upon  me  in  this  connection,  I 
will  detain  you  by  only  one  more  remark.  Our  Saviour  says : 
"  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world  ";  not,  ye  ought  to  be  the  light  of 
the  world  ;  i.  e.^  if  ye  are  my  disciples,  ye  do  give  light.  Here 
then,  beloved,  is  the  test  and  criterion  of  your  discipleship.  Ye 
give  the  world  light.  If  ye  are  His  disciples,  ye  shine ;  for  light 
must  shine.  If  ye  are  His  disciples,  ye  are  characterized  by  the 
purity  of  which  light  is  the  symbol ;  ye  are  the  source  and  fount- 
ain of  spiritual  knowledge  to  those  who  are  ignorant ;  ye  are 
active  as  the  light  that  glances  from  the  hill-top  to  the  lake  ;  ye 
are  pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  unity  with  all  God's  dear  people ; 
your  light  is  the  same  light  as  theirs,  because  drawn  from  the 
same  inexhaustible  fountain  of  light ;  ye  are  the  cause  of  bless- 
ings and  benedictions  to  others ;  ye  are  shining  not  to  be  seen 
simply,  but  that  others  may  see  by  your  light ;  ye  are  shining 
not  for  your  own  sake,  like  the  phosphorescent  glow-worm,  but 
ye  are  consuming  yourselves  for  the  good  of  others.  If  ye  are 
His  disciples,  your  light  shines  ;  it  is  not  obscured  by  being  hid 
under  a  bushel ;  it  is  not,  it  cannot  be  dimly  burning,  so  as  only 
to  render  darkness  visible  ;  ye  burn,  ye  glow,  ye  shine  ;  ye  pour 
the  bright,  white  light  all  around  you.  Oh  !  when  Christians 
shall  all  be  burning  and  shining  lights,  how  the  world  will  glow 
with  the  grand  illumination  I  You  have  noticed  the  lighting  of 
the  streets  in  a  large  city  ;  how,  when  the  first  lamp  is  lit,  it  is 
plainly  seen  and  disperses  in  part  the  surrounding  darkness  ;  but 
when  the  second,  third,  fourth,  and  all  the  lamps  are  lighted, 
light  meets  light,  ray  blends  with  ray,  until  the  whole  place  is 
illuminated.  Thus  it  is  with  the  spread  of  Christian  light.  The 
light  of  life  shining  from  one  believer  joins  and  blends  with  that 


LIGHT.  141 

of  another ;  the  light  of  one  neighborhood  with  that  of  an  ad- 
joining one,  the  light  of  nation  with  nation,  until  the  whole  world 
shall  become  filled  with  the  hght  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the 
blessed  God.  Beloved,  prove  your  discipleship  by  being  in  your 
.  sphere  and  in  your  generation  "  the  hght  of  the  world." 


XIII. 

PEEPAEING  AN  AEK. 

"  By  faith  Noah,  being  -warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  moved 
with  fear,  prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house  ;  by  the  which  he  con- 
demned the  world,  and  became  heir  of  the  righteousness  which  is  by  faith." — 
Heb.  xi.  7. 

Lamech,  the  tenth  in  descent  from  Adam,  was  a  devout  man, 
and  his  heart  was  sad  on  account  of  the  curse  that  seemed  to 
rest  on  the  earth.  The  birth  of  a  son,  which  took  place  600 
years  before  the  Dehige,  broke  hke  a  cheering  ray  upon  his  dark 
spirit.  He  called  his  name  Noah,  which  signifies  rest,  saying, 
"  This  shall  comfort  us  for  our  work  and  labor  of  our  hands  be- 
cause of  the  ground  which  Jehovah  hath  cursed."  After  this 
joyous  event  in  the  home  of  Lamech,  500  years  roll  away  before 
we  hear  anything  of  Noah  himself,  and  then  all  that  is  said  of 
him  is  that  he  begat  three  sons,  Shem,  Ham,  and  Japheth.  "We 
are  authorized,  however,  to  believe  that  during  the  whole  of 
these  five  centuries  his  conduct  realized  the  hopes  of  his  father, 
for  we  are  told  that  Noah  "  found  favor  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Lord  ";  that  he  was  "  a  just  man  and  perfect  in  his  generations," 
and  that  he  "  walked  with  God."  By  the  command  of  God,  and 
under  the  direction  of  infinite  wisdom,  he  built  an  ark,  by  which 
himself  and  family  escaped  the  ruin  of  the  universal  deluge, 
which  had  been  predicted  to  him  120  years  before  it  came. 
Without  dwelling  upon  the  biography  of  Noah,  which  is  fami- 
liar to  you  all,  I  wish  to  use  the  words  of  the  Apostle  in  refer- 
ence to  Noah's  faith  in  "  things  not  seen  as  yet,"  to  set  before 
you  some  of  those  "  things  not  seen  as  yet,"  which  await  every 
man ;  and  to  invite  you  to  the  exercise  of  the  same  wise  fore- 
sight by  which  Noah  "saved  his  house,"  "condemned  the 
(143) 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  143 

world,"  and  "became  heir  of  the  righteousness  which  is  by 
faith." 

I  remark  that  the  "  things  not  seen  as  yet,"  are  the  greatest 
and  most  momentous  things  in  human  history. 

Most  of  us  Hve  very  commonplace  and  uneventful  lives.  We 
are  born  into  the  world,  and  our  advent  occasions  no  stir,  except 
in  the  immediate  circle  of  our  own  family  ;  we  grow  up,  are 
educated,  take  our  places  in  society,  eat,  drink,  sleep,  die, 
and  the  world  moves  on,  unconscious  that  we  have  lived  or  that 
we  have  ceased  to  live.  If  there  is  anything  striking  or  import- 
ant in  our  history,  it  must  be  in  the  future,  among  the  "  things 
not  seen  as  yet."  Every  man  feels  this  to  be  so,  for  every  man 
is  looking  forward  to  the  futm-e  as  containing  for  him  all  the 
interest  of  his  existence.  I  think  it  may  be  affirmed  as  a  general 
truth  that  the  great  things  for  mankind,  which  are  not  as  yet 
seen,  are  the  greatest  things  in  their  history.  Some  men,  even 
in  this  short  life,  have  experienced  truly  wonderful  things  ;  their 
histories  have  been  eventful,  and  well-nigh  marvellous ;  their 
biographies  have  surpassed  the  creations  of  romance.  Yet  what 
they  have  seen  will  not  bear  comparison  with  the  things  which 
are  coming  to  them,  but  which  are  "  not  seen  as  yet."  Death — 
introduction  into  the  world  of  spirits — conscious  contact  with  the 
Judge  of  quick  and  dead — resurrection  from  the  sleep  of  centu- 
ries— all  the  events  of  individual  life,  not  merely  through  an  age 
or  a  millennium,  but  through  interminable  cycles ;  all  these 
things  are  "  not  seen  as  yet,"  but  they  await  every  one  of  us. 
They  are  in  the  march  of  coming  events,  and  they  will  break  in 
upon  our  horizon  in  due  time.  He  who  controls  human  affairs 
has  appointed  the  very  hour  of  their  advent,  and,  like  the  laws  of 
nature  and  the  stars  of  heaven,  they  vdll  keep  their  time.  When 
destiny  strikes  their  hour,  they  will  be  with  us. 

Let  me  enumerate  some  of  the  "  things  not  seen  as  yet "  which 
ought  to  exercise  a  controlHng  influence  over  every  thoughtful 
man. 

The  results  of  present  labors  are  among  the  "  things  not  seen 
as  yet."  Much  of  the  effort  which  each  one  is  now  making  seems  a 
useless  expenditure  of  strength.   How  much  mental  toil,  how  much 


144  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

of  painful  brain-work  seems  utterly  fruitless !  This  is  especially- 
true  of  labor  in  the  moral  vineyard.  The  apparent  hopelessness 
of  achieving  any  great  result  is  constantly  exemplified  in  the 
labors  of  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  he 
presents  to  men  the  fruit  of  his  diHgent  study  of  the  "VYord  oi 
God ;  and  he  looks  in  vain  for  any  result  flowing  from  that  which 
has  cost  him  a  world  of  toil.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the 
work  of  the  teacher  in  the  Sabbath-school.  Week  succeeds  week, 
and,  so  far  as  he  can  see,  his  careful  instructions  produce  no  vis- 
ible effect  upon  the  thoughtless  girls  or  boys  who  are  the  objects 
of  his  most  earnest  solicitation  and  constant  prayers. 

The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  anxious  parent  whose  only  desire 
for  his  children  is  that  they  may  grow  up  to  be  Christians.  He 
cannot  see  that  they  are  any  more  thoughtful  or  religiously  in- 
clined, notwithstanding  his  daily  and  hourly  solicitude  and  labor 
on  their  behalf. 

The  same  thing  is  especially  true  of  the  student  who  spends 
his  time  and  energy  in  the  schools  in  the  acquisition  of  element- 
ary knowledge.  He  often  says:  "Of  what  practical  value  will 
a  knowledge  of  Greek  roots  and  mathematical  formulas  be  to  me 
in  the  stirring  business  of  hfe  ? "  And  he  is  often  tempted  to 
despair ;  and  is  on  the  point  of  relaxing  effort,  because  the  way 
seems  so  long  from  his  present  abstract  study  to  any  practical  re- 
sult. ;N"ow  in  regard  to  all  these  forms  of  activity  the  results  are 
"things  not  seen  as  yet."  But  it  is  in  accordance  with  a  law  of 
the  constitution  of  things  that  every  effort  thus  put  forth  must 
one  day  produce  its  result.  The  seed  sown  must  one  day  germ- 
inate. Nothing  is  really  lost.  God  has  ordained  an  inseparable 
connection  between  labor  and  its  ultimate  reward.  And  in  His 
"Word  He  exhorts  us  not  to  become  "  weary  in  well  doing,  for  in 
due  season  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not."  We  are  told  that  "  he 
that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall  doubt- 
less come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves  with 
him." 

Kow  the  real  difference  that  we  observe  in  the  lives  of  men — 
some  attaining  grand  results,  and  some  utterly  failing  to  achieve 
anything  great  or  useful — is  in  large  measure  to  be  attributed  to 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  145 

the  influence  whicli  unseen  things  have  had  over  them  in  the 
earlier  part  of  their  career. 

Here  is  a  man  of  varied  acquirements  and  large  influence. 
His  opinions  are  eagerly  sought  for  on  every  question  of  practical 
interest.  His  words  are  weighty  and  powerful.  He  is  a  recog- 
nized force  in  the  Church,  or  in  the  State,  or  in  society.  He 
carries  with  him  a  moral  momentum,  so  that,  when  he  moves, 
masses  of  men  move  with  him.  Gray-headed  men,  his  seniors 
in  age,  pay  him  profound  respect,  and  defer  to  his  superior  wis- 
dom. Somehow  or  other,  this  man  has  acquired  a  strange  mas- 
tery over  his  fellows.  Young  men  gaze  at  him,  envying  the 
proud  position  he  occupies.  His  competitors  for  public  influence 
ascribe  his  ascendency  to  accident  or  to  the  capriciousness  of  the 
popular  mind ;  and  they  often  wonder  that  their  own  fancied 
superiority  is  disallowed.  Now  how  is  this  phenomenon  to  be 
explained  ?  May  not  the  explanation  be  sought  in  his  early  his- 
tory ?  in  the  patient  discipline  to  which  he  subjected  himself  in 
youth  ?  Many  a  night  has  he  spent  in  arduous  study,  in  laying 
up  stores  of  knowledge,  in  training  his  mental  powers ;  many  a 
stern  self-denial  has  he  practiced ;  many  a  time  has  he  had  the 
strength  of  character  to  forego  tasting  of  the  cup  of  pleasure ; 
many  a  time  has  he  stopped  his  ears  to  the  siren  song  of  the 
charmer,  in  order  that  he  might  waste  no  time  while  preparing 
for  the  great  business  of  life.  Little  by  little  his  store  of  useful 
knowledge  has  been  acquired.  By  slow  and  painful  effort  his 
muscles  have  been  hardened,  and  his  nerves  strung  for  loftier 
and  more  illustrious  exertions.  The  great  destiny  which  he  has 
reached  at  last,  was  a  thing  "not  seen  as  yet";  but  he  had  faith 
in  the  future,  he  had  faith  in  the  well-known  laws  of  human  suc- 
cess, and  in  his  preparation  for  life  he  was  content  to  "  labor  and 
to  wait."  He  knew  that  he  was  laying  foundations  deep  and 
strong ;  and,  although  he  could  not  foresee  the  exact  proportions  of 
the  structure  which  was  to  arise  upon  them,  he  was  well  assured 
of  the  great  truth,  that  he  who  would  build  up  a  great  and 
sublime  destiny,  must,  in  the  beginning,  be  willing  to  dig  deep, 
and  base  his  foundation  on  the  rock.  The  things  "  not  seen  as  yet " 
presented  themselves  in  dim  and  hazy  outline  before  his  imagin- 


146  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

ation,  and  exercised  the  same  power  over  him  that  the  actual 
reahty  now  has  over  others. 

In  the  same  spirit  the  minister  of  the  Gospel  labors  in  his  ap- 
propriate field  and  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of  his  calling.  He 
cannot  see  any  of  the  fruits  of  his  labors.  For  years  he  goes  in 
and  out  before  his  people,  and,  to  all  appearance,  his  preaching 
makes  no  mark  and  leaves  no  sign.  Men  come  and  go  ;  they 
listen  and  then  seem  to  forget ;  they  turn  aside  for  a  moment 
from  their  business  or  their  pleasure,  seem  for  a  moment  to  be 
impressed  by  the  solemn  message  he  delivers,  and  then  they  rush 
back  again  to  the  world,  and  become  immersed  in  their  business 
or  infatuated  in  the  pursuit  of  vanities.  He  often  is  forced  to 
cry  out,  "  Who  hath  believed  our  report,  and  to  whom  is  the  arm 
of  the  Lord  revealed  ? "  All  day  long  he  stretches  out  his  hands 
to  a  thoughtless  and  giddy  populace  that  seem  bent  on  rushing 
to  destruction.  Now,  what  sustains  him  in  his  apparently  hope- 
less work  ? — His  faith  in  "  things  not  seen  as  yet."  He  knows  that 
God's  Word  cannot  return  unto  him  void.  "  As  the  rain  cometh 
down  and  the  snow  from  heaven  and  returneth  not  thither,  but 
watereth  the  earth  and  maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  that  it 
may  give  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the  eater,  so  shall  God's 
Word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  his  mouth." 

Truth  has  a  wonderful  germinating  power.  It  may  lie  hidden 
in  the  soil  of  the  mind  for  many  years,  and  may  seem  to  be  dead 
or  hopelessly  buried,  and  yet  it  will  come  to  life  and  take  root 
and  bring  forth  an  abundant  harvest.  One  great  doctrine  im- 
bedded in  the  mind  of  a  congregation  may  slowly  produce  results 
in  quickening  spiritual  life,  in  stimulating  Christian  zeal  and  ac- 
tivity, in  strengthening  God's  people  for  suffering,  and  for  doing 
His  will,  which  the  superficial  and  thoughtless  hearer  of  the 
Word  did  not  dream  of,  as  he  turned  coldly  away  while  it  was 
taught  or  defended  in  the  hearing  of  the  great  congregation. 
Hence  the  minister  who  seeks  for  lasting  influence  over  the 
minds  of  his  hearers  disregards  the  popular  clamor  for  what  is 
called  popular  preaching,  and  endeavors  to  ground  his  hearers  in 
the  great  doctrines  of  the  Gospel,  content  to  wait  for  the  far-off 
results  which  he  knows  must  accrue  at  last  in  the  deeper  and 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  \4ll 

more  intelligent  piety  of  liis  people.  He  has  faith  in  "  things 
not  seen  as  yet," 

There  is  another  class  of  laborers  to  whom  it  is  especially  im- 
portant to  have  faith  in  "  things  not  seen  as  yet."  I  refer  to 
those  who  are  engaged  in  the  work  of  teaching  in  our  Sabbath- 
schools.  There  is  a  tendency  in  the  Church  to  esteem  lightly 
the  influence  of  the  Sunday-school  on  our  children.  Many  par- 
ents seem  indifferent  as  to  whether  their  children  go  to  or  stay 
away  from  this  nursery  of  the  Church.  Yet,  it  is  one  of  the 
most  important  instrumentalities  which  God  has  ever  employed 
for  the  conversion  of  the  young.  Now  the  teacher  in  the  Sunday- 
school  is  constantly  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  utter  discour- 
agement. The  children  in  his  class  are  full  of  levity  and  thought- 
lessness ;  the  most  solemn  truths  seem  to  produce  no  impression 
on  their  minds  or  hearts.  The  instruction  seems  thrown  away. 
Not  so,  however.  In  after-years  those  truths  will  appear  in  their 
consciousness.  The  line  upon  line  and  the  precept  upon  precept 
have*  produced  an  abiding  impression  upon  their  character,  and 
have  insensibly  controlled  their  conduct  all  along.  They  have 
been  training  for  usefulness  in  the  Church  and  in  society,  at  the 
very  time  that  their  humble  and  perhaps  obscure  teacher  has 
been  lamenting  his  own  lack  of  skill  in  imparting  religious 
knowledge.  Amid  so  many  discouragements  as  he  continually 
encounters,  no  man,  no  young  woman,  needs  to  be  more  earnestly 
exhorted  to  have  "faith  in  things  not  seen  as  yet,"  than  the 
modeet,  unostentatious  Sabbath-school  teacher. 

These  general  views  of  the  influence  of  unseen  future  things 
on  the  labors  of  men  are  not  without  value. 

Let  me  now  direct  your  minds  to  a  closer  analysis  of  the  text. 
Noah,  being  warned  of  God  of  things  not  seen  as  yet,  by  faith 
prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house,  and  condemned  the 
world  thereby. 

The  unseen  thing  of  which  God  warned  Noah  was  His  deter- 
mination to  destroy  by  a  flood  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  on 
account  of  their  wickedness.  "We  learn  that  Noah  spent  120 
years  in  preparing  for  this  catastrophe :  that  one  great  object 
which  animated  him  in  all  his  labors  was  the  salvation  of  his 


148  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

family  from  the  impending  calamity  ;  and  that,  by  his  conduct, 
he  condemned  the  world — ^.  e.,  he  condemned  it  by  his  doctrine, 
by  his  obedience,  by  his  example,  and  by  his  faith  in  them  alL 
And  Noah  is  held  up  to  us  for  our  imitation. 

But  as  God  has  promised  that  He  will  not  again  destroy  the 
world  with  a  flood,  it  is  pertinent  to  inquire  how  we  can  imitate 
him  ?  "What  are  the  calamities  of  which  God  has  warned  us, 
for  which  we  ought  to  spend  all  our  years  in  preparation  ?  The 
example  of  Noah  is  specially  held  up  for  the  imitation  of  Chris- 
tian parents.  He  "  prepared  an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house." 
It  was  not  solely  on  his  own  account  that  he  was  moved  with 
fear.  His  sons  and  their  wives  were  the  objects  of  his  tenderest 
solicitude.  Now,  there  are  calamities  much  more  dreadful  than 
a  flood  of  waters  impending  over  all  our  families,  which  ought  to 
move  us  with  fear.  Each  one  of  your  sons  and  daughters  is  a 
sinner ;  each  one  of  them  must  die ;  each  one  of  them  must 
meet  God  in  judgment,  and  render  a  final  account  for  the  deeds 
done  here  in  the  body.  The  solemn  questions,  then,  that  I  pre- 
sent to  you  to-day  are  :  Are  you  "  preparing  an  ark  for  the  sav- 
ing of  your  house  "  ?  Are  you  training  up  your  cliildren  with 
worldly  views  and  expectations  ?  Are  you  impressing  them  with 
the  sentiment  that  success  in  life,  or  the  accumulation  of  wealth, 
or  prosperous  settlements  by  marriage,  or  a  brilliant  social 
career,  is  the  chief  end  to  be  aimed  at?  Do  you  by  your 
current  conversation  and  example  lead  them  to  think  that  you 
regard  religion  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  as  compared 
with  these  objects  of  worldly  interest?  Is  the  study  of  the 
Word  of  God  and  of  the  great  doctrines  of  our  faith  super- 
seded by  their  exclusive  attention  to  the  study  of  their  school 
books,  and  by  their  cultivation  of  the  elegant  accomplishments 
that  will  fit  them  to  shine  in  society  ?  Have  you  relaxed 
the  reins  of  authority  over  them,  so  that  they  do  as  they  please, 
go  where  they  please,  choose  such  associates  as  they  please,  and 
indulge  themselves  without  check  or  restraint  ?  If  any  one  of 
these  suppositions  is  true,  then  let  me  assure  you,  you  are  not  pre- 
paring an  ark  for  the  saving  of  your  house.  And  yet  this  is  the 
chief  end  which  every  parent  ouglit  to  have  in  view.     It  is  for 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  149 

this  that  God  spares  your  life,  that  you  may  save  your  children. 
You  have  lived  long  enough  for  your  own  good.  You  have  ex- 
hausted all  the  joy  of  hfe ;  and  now  the  only  pleasui-e  you  can  have 
is  in  your  offspring.  And  as  the  salvation  of  Noah's  house  was 
dependent  upon  him,  so  the  salvation  of  your  families  is  in  your 
hands.  God  holds  you  responsible  to  prepare  an  ark  for  their 
saving. 

There  are  three  instruments  which  God  has  placed  in  the 
hands  of  every  parent  by  means  of  which  he  may  "  prepare  an 
ark  "  for  the  saving  of  his  house,  and  these  are  precept,  parental 
authority,  and  example. 

Under  the  first  of  these  heads  may  be  ranged  the  whole  work 
of  religious  instruction ;  the  careful  indoctrination  of  your  chil- 
dren in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel,  their  learning  of  the  lessons 
for  the  Sunday-school,  their  committing  to  memory  the  cate- 
chism, and  all  that  invisible  teaching  which  is  involved  in  the 
reiteration  of  good  principles  at  the  table,  at  the  fireside,  and  in 
the  conversations  that  are  held  in  their  presence  by  the  father 
and  mother  of  the  family. 

But  mere  precept  without  the  exercise  of  parental  authority 
and  discipline  is  not  enough.  Suppose  you  teach  your  sons  that 
profanity  is  a  sin,  and  yet  permit  them  to  associate  with  profane 
companions ;  or  that  drunkenness  and  licentiousness  are  wrong, 
and  yet  suffer  them  to  wander  about  the  streets  at  night  without 
your  knowing  where  they  are,  or  what  den  of  infamy  they  fre- 
quent, how  can  you  expect  them  to  heed  your  formal  lessons  on 
virtue  ?  Suppose  you  teach  your  daughters  that  worldliness  is  a 
sin,  and  yet  yield  to  their  desire  to  dress  in  fine  clothes  and  to 
attend  balls  and  dancing  parties,  and  theatres,  and  other  worldly 
places  of  amusement,  how  can  you  expect  them  to  be  other  than 
frivolous,  and  worldly,  and  vain  ?  You  have  often  felt  a  sort  of 
pitying  contempt  for  that  old  man  Eli,  who  was  so  weakly  in- 
dulgent to  his  sons ;  whom,  although  "  they  made  themselves 
vile,  he  restrained  not."  But  if  you  do  not  exercise  your  pa- 
rental authority  in  governing  your  children,  how  are  you  any 
better  than  he  ?  I  hold  that  as  long  as  a  boy  or  a  girl  is  under 
the  paternal  roof,  it  is  the  father's  solemn  duty  to  control  them 


150  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

absolutely ;  to  see  that  thej  are  always  at  home  as  soon  as  the 
gas  is  lighted  in  the  house,  and  to  compel  them  to  observe  all  the 
rules  of  a  well-regulated  Christian  family.  I  hold  that  no  man 
has  a  right  to  engage  in  any  business  which  will  take  him  away 
from  his  family  at  night,  or  at  least  that  will  prevent  his  having 
an  oversight  of  his  sons  and  daughters.  Are  there  not  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  examples  of  boys  reared  on  the  streets  at  night 
to  warn  parents  of  the  "  things  not  seen  as  yet "  that  await  their 
sons  if  their  rightful  authority  over  them  is  relaxed  ? 

But  precept  enforced  by  parental  authority  is  not  enough  to 
secure  the  desired  result.  "  I  do  not  undervalue  a  strong  and 
decided  government  in  families.  N'o  family  can  be  rightly 
trained  without  it.  But  there  is  a  kind  of  virtue,  my  brethren, 
which  is  not  in  the  rod — the  virtue  of  a  truly  sanctified  life.  A 
reign  of  brute  force  is  much  more  easily  maintained  than  a  reign 
whose  power  is  righteousness  and  love.  There  are  many  who  talk 
of  the  rod  as  the  orthodox  symbol  of  parental  duty,  who  might 
really  as  well  be  heathens  as  Christians ;  who  only  storm  about  their 
houses  with  heathenish  ferocity ;  who  lecture,  and  castigate,  and 
threaten,  and  bruise,  and  who  call  this  family  government.  They 
even  dare  to  speak  of  this  as  '  the  nurture  of  the  Lord.'  By  no 
such  summary  process  can  you  dispatch  your  duties  to  your  chil- 
dren. You  are  not  to  be  a  savage  to  them,  but  a  father  and  a 
Christian.  Tour  real  aim  and  study  must  be  to  infuse  into  them 
a  new  life,  and  to  this  end  the  life  of  God  must  perpetually  reign 
in  you.  Gathered  round  you  as  a  family,  they  are  all  to  be  so 
many  motives,  strong  as  the  love  you  bear  them,  to  make  you 
Christlike  in  your  spirit.  It  must  be  seen  and  felt  by  them  that 
religion  is  the  first  thing  with  you.  And  it  must  be  first,  not  in 
words  and  talk,  but  visibly  first  in  your  love — that  which  fixes 
your  aims,  feeds  your  enjoyments,  sanctifies  your  pleasures,  sup- 
ports your  trials,  satisfies  your  wants,  contents  your  ambition, 
beautifies  and  blesses  your  character.  No  mock  piety,  no  sancti- 
mony of  phrase  or  longfacedness  on  Sundays  will  suffice.  You 
must  live  in  the  light  of  God,  and  hold  such  a  spirit  in  exercise 
as  you  wish  to  see  translated  into  your  children.  You  must  tnke 
them  into  your  feehngs  as  a  loving  and  joyous  element,  ana  ut)- 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  151 

get,  if  by  the  grace  of  God  you  may,  the  spirit  of  your  own 
heart  in  theirs.  This  is  Christian  education :  this  is  the  '  nurture 
of  the  Lord.'  Ah  !  how  dismal  is  the  contrast  of  a  half  worldly 
piety,  proposing  money  as  the  one  good  thing  of  life,  stimulating 
ambition  for  place  and  show,  provoking  ill-nature  by  petulance 
and  falsehood,  having  now  and  then  a  religious  fit,  and  when  it 
is  on,  weeping,  and  exhorting  the  family  to  undo  all  that  the  life 
has  taught  them  to  do ;  and  then,  when  the  passions  have  burnt 
out  their  fire,  dropping  down  again  to  sleep  in  the  cinders,  only 
hoping  still  that  the  family  will  sometime  be  converted.  When 
will  men  learn  that  families  are  inevitably  ruined  by  such  train- 
ing as  this  ? " 

I  have  said  that  in  order  to  make  your  children  Christians, 
they  must  see  that  religion  is  the  first  thing  with  you.  Now  let  me 
descend  to  particulars,  and  show  you  in  what  way  many  of  you  are 
teaching  your  children  that  religion  is  the  very  last  thing  with  you. 

Among  the  most  important  of  the  means  of  grace  which  God 
has  established  in  His  providence  is  a  weekly  meeting  for  prayer. 
Those  who  are  "  preparing  an  ark  for  the  saving  of  their  house  " 
are  always  there.  They  account  it  their  most  precious  means  of 
grace.  Numbers  of  you  whom  I  now  address  are  never  there,  and 
numbers  only  occasionally.  Now,  those  who  only  occasionally 
come  are  just  as  unspiritual  as  those  who  never  come  at  all.  A 
duty  which  may  be  omitted  at  the  suggestion  of  caprice  or  of 
disinclination,  ceases  to  be  regarded  as  a  duty  at  all.  Now,  what- 
ever the  pretext  with  which  you  soothe  your  conscience  in  regard 
to  this  omission  of  duty,  the  real  reason  is,  you  do  not  want  to  be 
there.  You  have  no  delight  in  prayer  ;  you  have  no  confidence 
in  the  efiicacy  of  prayer,  and  it  is  a  weariness  and  disgust  to  you. 
I  am  not  now  speaking  of  what  you  yourselves  lose,  but  of  the 
baneful  influence  which  this  conduct  has  upon  your  children.  It 
says  to  them  in  language  louder  than  words,  every  time  they  hear 
the  bell  summon  you  to  the  house  of  prayer,  and  see  you  com- 
placently sitting  down  in  your  parlors  entertaining  company,  or 
playing  upon  the  piano,  or  reading  a  book  or  newspaper — it  saya 
to  them,  "  Your  father,  your  mother,  is  indifferent  to  religion  ; 
they  have  no  confidence  in  prayer,  no  delight  in  it."    The  children 


152  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

know  the  hollowness  of  the  excuse  that  jou  "  never  go  out  at 
night,"  or  that  jou  have  "  no  one  to  go  with  you,"  and  such  like 
subterfuges.  They  know  that  you  do  go  out  at  night  when  you 
want  to  go,  and  that  whenever  you  want  an  escort  you  can  get  one. 
They  know  that  there  is  no  family  altar  in  your  house,  and  no 
secret  prayer  ;  they  know  that  they  are  living  in  a  godless,  Christ- 
less  home,  and  that  for  the  saving  of  that  house  there  is  no  ark 
preparing ;  and  therefore  they  grow  up  skeptical,  like  their 
parents,  and  utterly  incredulous  as  to  the  "  things  not  seen  as 
yet."  No  wonder  your  children  are  not  converted  when  you, 
in  whom  they  confide,  are  teaching  them  every  day  by  your  con- 
duct, that  religion  is  a  delusion  and  the  Gospel  a  lie. 

Or  perhaps  your  excuse  is  that  you  have  an  ungodly  husband, 
and  that  you  stay  at  home  to  make  home  attractive  to  him.  Did 
it  ever  occur  to  you  that  you  might  prepare  an  ark  for  the  saving 
of  that  husband,  if  you  would  unite  with  the  people  of  God  in 
praying  for  his  conversion,  and  if  you  showed  him  by  your  faith- 
ful attendance  upon  the  ordinances  of  the  sanctuary  that  you  do 
not  think  it  a  vain  thing  to  serve  God  ?  How  many  a  wife  has 
fortified  her  husband  in  impiety  by  stifling  her  own  convictions 
of  duty,  and  neglecting  the  very  means  of  grace  which  might 
have  been  instrumental  in  saving  him  ! 

But  there  is  another  neglect  that  seems  to  me  more  amazing 
still.  It  is  the  neglect  of  those  who  do  attend  all  the  means  of 
grace  to  bring  their  children  with  them.  The  reason  which  is 
rendered  for  this  failure  in  duty  is  that  the  children  are  studying 
their  lessons  at  the  hour  of  prayer.  The  lesson  ought  to  be 
studied  at  some  other  time.  Everything  ought  to  be  made  to 
bend  to  tlie  performance  of  this  duty.  But  your  accepting  and 
giving  this  as  a  valid  reason  is  a  direct  admission  to  your  cliildren 
that  the  attainment  of  secular  knowledge  is  first  in  your  esteem, 
and  religion  second  and  comparatively  unimportant.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  they  grow  up  with  a  depreciatory  esteem  of  this 
important  means  of  grace  ;  and  when  their  school-days  are  past, 
they  are  never  seen  at  a  prayer-meeting.  Who  arc  the  members 
of  this  cluu'ch  who  never  darken  the  doors  of  the  lecture-room  ? 
Those  whose  parents  never  brought  them  there,  when  they  were 


PREPARING  AN  ARK.  153 

children.  ISTo  wonder  your  cliildren  are  not  converted.  You 
systematically  train  them  to  stay  away  from  the  means  of  grace. 
If  I  had  to  choose  between  the  loss  of  education  for  my  children 
and  the  formation  of  irregular  habits  of  attendance  on  the  sanc- 
tuary and  at  the  prayer-meeting,  I  should  say,  let  them  never  be 
educated,  let  them  lose  all  human  knowledge :  but  let  me  prepare 
an  ark  for  the  saving  of  my  house  in  the  habits  of  a  godly  and 
pious  family,  trained  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 
It  seems  to  me  that  unconverted  members  of  the  church  ought 
seriously  to  consider  what  effect  they  are  producing  on  their 
children.  "  Probably,  you  do  not  wish  them  to  grow  up  irrelig- 
ious like  yourselves ;  few  pai'ents  have  the  hardihood  to  desire 
that  the  fear  of  God  and  the  salutary  restraints  of  religion  should 
be  removed  from  their  children.  Possibly,  you  exert  yourselves 
in  a  degree  to  give  them  religious  counsel  and  instruction.  But 
alas !  how  difficult  it  is  for  you  to  convince  them  by  words  of 
the  value  of  what  you  practically  reject  yourselves.  What  are 
they  daily  deriving  from  you,  but  that  which  you  yourselves 
reveal  in  your  prayerless  home  and  at  your  thankless  table  ?  Is 
it  a  spirit  of  duty  and  Christian  love,  a  faith  that  has  its  home 
and  rest  in  other  worlds,  or  is  it  the  carnal  spirit  of  gain,  indiffer- 
ence to  God,  deadness  to  Christ,  and  love  of  the  world,  pride, 
ambition,  and  all  that  is  earthly,  nothing  that  is  heavenly  ?  Do 
not  imagine  that  you  were  done  corrupting  them  when  they  were 
born.  Their  character  is  yet  to  be  born,  and  in  you  is  to  have 
its  parentage.  Your  spirit  is  to  pass  into  them."  And  then  you 
are  to  meet  them  in  the  future  world,  when  the  things  not  seen 
as  yet  shall  have  become  realities,  and  you  are  to  see  how  much 
of  blessing  or  of  sorrow  they  will  impute  to  you.  You  are  to 
share  their  unknown  future,  and  to  look  upon  yourselves  as  father 
and  mother  to  their  destiny.  "  Loving  these  children,  as  most 
assuredly  you  do,  can  you  think  that  you  are  fulfilling  the  office 
that  your  love  requires  ?  Go  home  to  your  Christless  house,  look 
upon  them  all,  as  they  gather  round  you,  and  ask  it  of  your  love 
faithfully  to  say  whether  it  is  well  between  you.  And  if  no 
other  argument  can  draw  you  to  God,  let  these  dear,  living  argu- 
ments come  into  your  soul  and  prevail  there." 


154  PREPARING  AN  ARK. 

Let  me  then  exhort  each  one  who  hears  me  to-day  to  go  home 
resolved  to  begin  from  this  horn-  to  build  an  ark  for  the  saving 
of  his  house.  "What  a  revolution  it  would  produce  in  many  of 
the  households  in  this  church  !  How  all  your  habits  would  have 
to  be  changed  !  And  be  assured  you  cannot  do  it  without  what 
will  seem  to  you  an  herculean  effort.  Remember  that  Noah  did 
not  think  it  too  much  to  labor  for  120  years  amid  the  scoffs  and 
jeers  of  all  his  contemporaries,  to  build  an  ark  for  the  saving  of 
his  house.  You  will  have  to  encounter  the  same  obloquy  and 
ridicule.  The  world  will  call  you  a  Puritan  and  a  fanatic  ;  but 
oh !  if  you  save  your  house,  what  of  that  ?  Your  childi-en,  so 
long  unused  to  restraint  and  discipline,  will  chafe  at  first  under 
the  new  restrictions  and  burdens  ;  but  what  of  that,  if  you  only 
save  your  house  ?  Oh !  what  a  change  in  the  aspect  of  the 
church  if  parents  would  only  believe  what  God  has  said  about 
things  not  seen  as  yet,  and  should  begin  to  build  arks  for  the 
saving  of  their  house.  What  blessed  and  delightful  meetings  for 
prayer !  What  a  precious  revival  of  true  religion  would  begin 
among  God's  people  !  What  conversions  of  the  unconverted 
members  of  the  church  !  What  a  stir  would  be  heard  among 
the  dry  bones  !  How  would  the  impenitent  be  aroused  to  a  sense 
of  their  danger,  when  on  every  side  they  should  see  the  signs 
and  hear  the  sounds  of  fathers  and  mothers  engaged  in  building 
an  ark  for  the  saving  of  their  house  !  Then  might  they  begin  to 
believe  that  you  have  faith  in  things  not  seen  as  yet,  and  that 
you  are  in  earnest  when  you  tell  them  you  are  preparing  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come.  Oh,  that  God  would  baptize  us  all 
with  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire!  "Come 
from  the  four  winds,  0  breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain  that 
they  may  live." 


XIV. 

THE  SABBATH. 

"  The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  the  Sabbath," — Mark 

The  Pharisees  had  accused  our  Lord's  disciples  of  Sabbath- 
breaking,  because  to  satisfy  their  hunger  they  on  the  Sabbath 
day  had  plucked  ears  of  corn,  rubbed  them  in  their  hands  and 
eaten  them. 

He  defended  their  conduct,  affirming  that  they  had  not  broken 
even  the  strict  law  of  Moses. 

To  what  did  He  refer  when  He  spoke  of  the  Sabbath  ?  Evi- 
dently to  the  fourth  commandment,  which  is,  "  Eemember  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy,  etc."  He  does  not  intimate  that 
He,  as  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  abohshed  the  fourth  commandment. 
But  He  declares  the  true  end  for  which  the  law  was  enacted. 
It  was  made  for  the  welfare  of  man  as  man — not  for  the  Jew, 
but  for  man. 

There  is  no  propriety  in  speaking  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  It 
is  a  day  that  was  observed  for  centuries  before  the  age  of  Abra- 
ham. 

The  fourth  commandment  relates  to  a  day  of  rest  which  God 
appointed  from  the  beginning  of  human  history — a  day  sancti- 
fied by  Him  in  the  garden  of  Eden  before  the  fall  of  man  (Gen. 
ii.  3) ;  a  day  honored  by  Cain  and  Abel  when  they  brought  forth 
their  offerings  to  the  Lord  (Gen.  iv.  3) ;  a  day  recognized  by 
Noah  in  the  ark  (Gen.  vii.  10,  12) ;  a  day  which  was  observed 
by  Jacob  in  the  marriage  festivities  accompanying  his  marriage 
to  Leah  (Gen.  xxix.  28) ;  and  by  Joseph  in  Egypt  during  the 
solemnities  attending  the  burial  of  Jacob  (Gen.  1.  10). 

The  fourth  commandment  was  not  the  original  enactment  of  a 

(155) 


156  THE  SABBATH. 

law,  but  the  republication  of  one  that  had  fallen  into  disuse 
during  Israel's  bondage  in  Egypt.  In  a  condition  of  slavery 
among  a  heathen  people,  the  Israelites  had  not  been  permitted  to 
observe  this  day  of  rest.  Hence,  when  Moses  in  Deuteronomy  re- 
peats the  law  to  the  people,  he  enforces  the  duty  of  so  observing  it 
that  the  man-servant  and  maid-servant  may  also  rest,  by  remind- 
ing the  Israelite  of  his  own  enforced  violation  of  the  Sabbath  when 
he  was  a  slave  (Deut.  v.  15).  Hence  the  language,  "  Remem- 
ber ";  i.  e.,  "  cease  to  forget,"  call  to  mind  the  forgotten  precept, 
which,  now  that  you  are  free,  you  can  obey. 

That  the  Sabbath  was  an  original  institute,  or  ordained  from 
the  beginning,  is  made  certain  by  the  fact  that  traces  of  its  rec- 
ognition are  found  among  nearly  all  the  nations  of  antiquity. 
The  Egyptians,  Phoenicians,  Assyrians,  Arabians,  and  Greeks 
divided  time  into  periods  of  seven  days,  showing  that  they  had 
derived  from  ancient  traditions  the  idea  of  a  seventh  day  as  a 
boimdary  line  bet\A'een  the  other  days  of  the  week.  Hesiod,  the 
oldest  Greek  poet.  Homer,  Linus,  Calhmachus,  Solon  the  great, 
Aulas  GelHus,  Lucian,  and  Lampridius,  all  make  mention  of  the 
seventh  as  a  sacred  day.  Josephus  says,  "  There  is  neither  any 
city  of  the  Greeks,  nor  barbarians,  nor  any  nation  whatever  to 
whom  our  custom  of  resting  on  the  seventh  day  is  not  come." 

Bat  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  the  existence  of  a  primeval 
Sabbath  is  found  in  the  recent  "Assyrian  Discoveries  "  of  George 
Smith.  He  says,  "  In  the  year  1869,  I  discovered  among  other 
things  a  curious  religious  calendar  of  the  Assyrians,  in  which 
every  month  is  divided  into  four  weeks,  and  the  seventh  days  are 
marked  out  as  days  on  which  no  work  sliould  be  undertaken." 
Lines  14,  17,  and  18  of  the  Fifth  "  Creation  Tablet "  exhumed 
by  Smith,  are  thus  translated  by  Fox  Talbot :  "  On  each  month, 
without  fail,  God  made  days  of  sacred  assemblies,  He  desig- 
nated  the  seventh  to  be  a  holy  day,  and  commanded  to  abstain 
from  all  business." 

Hence,  Canon  Tristram,  before  the  English  Congress,  says: 
"  Amid  the  controversies  on  the  origin  and  meaning  of  the  Sab- 
bath, we  now  know  that  it  was  no  Mosaic  invention,  nor  exclu- 
sive Semitic  observance,  not  even  an  ordinance  delivered   to 


THE  SABBATH.  157 

Abraham  to  separate  his  family  from  surrounding  idolatry ;  but 
a  primeval  tradition,  recognized,  be  it  noted,  by  the  Hamitic  con- 
temporaries of  Nimrod,  as  instituted  from  the  creation :  We 
have  thus  another  definite  result,  that  evidence  is  afforded  that 
,  the  Sabbath  was  recognized  as  a  Divine  institution  before  the 
separation  of  the  Hamitic  and  Semitic  families  of  man,  and  that 
the  obligation  of  its  observance  was  acknowledged  by  both  fam- 
ilies." * 

I  quote  these  testimonies,  simply  to  show  that  the  Sabbath 
was  not  introduced  by  Moses,  and  that  the  abolition  of  the  Jew- 
ish economy  cannot  affect  the  general  question. 

Moses  was  commanded  by  God  to  republish  the  moral  law. 
The  fourth  commandment  stands  or  falls  with  the  other  nine. 
It  was  one  of  the  "  ten  words  "  graven  by  the  finger  of  God  on 
two  tablets  of  stone.  It  was,  so  to  speak,  bound  up  in  the  same 
volume  with  the  rest  of  the  moral  law. 

There  was  a  broad  line  drawn  between  the  moral  and  the  cere- 
monial law.  The  latter,  written  by  Moses,  was  put  in  a  book  and 
laid  outside  of  the  sacred  "  ark  of  the  covenant."  The  former, 
graven  by  the  finger  of  God,  was  put  inside  of  the  ark  to  show 
symbolically  that  it  was  inseparable  from  the  covenant  of  obe- 
dience which  Christ  came  to  fulfil.  If  the  law  of  the  Sabbath 
were  to  be  relaxed  by  the  coming  of  Christ,  it  would  not  have 
been  thus  shut  up  in  the  ark  with  the  rest  of  the  moral  law. 

It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  decision  of  the  Sabbath  question 
must  be  sought  outside  of  the  Bible.  But  who  would  accord 
any  validity  to  a  moral  decision  not  enforced  by  a  Thus  saith 
the  Lord  ? 

It  is  also  said  that,  while  the  other  commandments  are  re])eated 
in  the  New  Testament,  the  fourth  is  not  repeated.  But  what 
more  positive  reaffirmation  of  the  "  ten  words  "  as  a  whole  can 
any  one  demand  than,  "  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the 
law  and  the  prophets  ;  I  am  not  come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfil." 
"  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise 
pass  till  all  be  fulfilled." 

*  The  Creation  Tablets  were  found  by  Mr.  Geo.  Smith  on  the  supposed 
site  of  the  ancient  Nineveh,  on  the  bank  of  the  Tigris. 


158  THE  SABBATH. 

Now,  what  is  the  fourth  commandment  ?  "  Remember  the 
Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do 
all  thy  work  ;  but  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord 
thy  God  ;  in.  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work." 

There  are  two  elements  in  it.  One  is  precept,  the  other  is 
prohibition.  It  is  with  the  latter  that  I  am  at  present  dealing — 
the  prohibition  of  all  work. 

In  the  text  om*  Lord  says  this  day  of  rest  was  ordained  for  the 
weKare  of  all  mankind.  I  am  now  only  to  prove  that  the  high- 
est interests  of  all  men  demand  a  stated  day  of  sacred  rest  out  of 
the  seven  days  of  the  week. 

First.  As  a  mere  animal,  it  is  not  for  the  good  of  man  that 
he  work  continuously  without  a  seventh  day  of  absolute  rest. 

In  the  year  1832  the  British  House  of  Commons  appointed  a 
committee  to  investigate  this  subject.  Dr.  John  R.  Farre,  an 
eminent  physician,  testified  as  follows  : 

"  As  a  day  of  rest  I  look  upon  the  Sabbath  as  a  day  of  com- 
pensation for  the  inadequate  restorative  power  of  the  body  under 
continued  labor  and  excitement.  The  ordinary  exertions  of  a 
man  run  down  the  circulation,  and  the  first  general  law  of  nature 
is  the  alternating  of  day  and  night,  that  repose  may  succeed 
action.  But  although  the  night  apparently  equalizes  the  circula- 
tion, yet  it  does  not  sufficiently  restore  the  balance  for  the  attain- 
ment of  long  life.  Hence  one  day  in  seven,  by  the  bounty  of 
Providence,  is  thrown  in  as  a  day  of  compensation  to  perfect  by 
its  repose  the  animal  system." 

The  law  of  the  Sabbath  is  "  written  in  man's  members  "  and 
in  the  whole  animal  creation.  The  wayfarer  who  rests  one  day 
in  seven,  gets  along  faster  and  farther  on  his  journey  than  he 
who  presses  on  during  seven  days.  The  army  which  rests  on 
Sunday  marches  farther  in  the  long  run  than  the  army  which 
does  not.  The  team  which  rests  does  not  become  jaded  by  the 
whole  trip.  Droves  of  sheep,  hogs,  and  cattle  are  found  by 
actual  experiment  to  travel  farther  and  keep  fatter  by  resting 
one  day  in  seven.  A  flouring-mill  in  England  was  actually 
found  to  have  ground  50,000  more  bushels  per  annum  after  it 


THE  SABBATH.  150 

kept  the  Sabbath  than  before  when  it  broke  it.  "  The  men 
having  been  permitted  to  wash  and  dress  themselves,  rest  from 
business,  and  go  to  church  with  their  famiHes,  were  more  healthy, 
moral,  punctual,  and  diligent.  They  lost  less  time  in  drinking, 
dissipation,  and  quarrels.  They  were  more  clear-headed  and 
whole-hearted,  knew  better  how  to  do  things,  and  were  more 
disposed  to  do  them  in  the  right  way." 

An  experiment  was  once  made  in  England  upon  two  thousand 
laboring  men  in  one  establishment.  For  years  they  had  worked 
seven  days  in  the  week,  and  were  paid  double  wages  for  Sunday 
work.  They  were  neither  healthy  nor  moral.  The  policy  was 
changed,  and  the  consequence  was  they  did  more  work  in  six 
days  and  in  a  better  manner  than  they  had  done  in  seven.  The 
superintendent  said  this  was  owing  to  two  causes :  viz.,  the  de- 
moralization of  the  people  under  the  first  system,  and  their  ex- 
haustion of  bodily  strength.  These  are  all  well-attested  facts, 
which  it  is  not  wise  for  either  employers  or  employes  to  disre- 
gard. 

Let  us  examine  God's  Sabbath  law.  Thou  shalt  not  do 
cmy  work.  This  clearly  prohibits  every  one  from  pursuing  his 
ordinary  vocation.  If  obeyed,  it  would  close  every  store,  arrest 
work  in  every  flour-mill,  foundry,  tan -yard,  wharf -boat,  steam- 
boat, railroad,  printing-office,  ice  factory,  distillery,  post-office, 
etc.,  in  the  land.  Nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  imposes  on 
parents  the  duty  of  restraining  their  children  from  the  violation 
of  the  Sabbath.  Nor  thy  m^an-servant,  forbids  employers  im- 
posing any  but  works  of  necessity  upon  hired  laborers.  Wor  thy 
maidservmit,  prohibits  unnecessary  domestic  employment.  Nor 
thy  cattle.  Doth  God  care  for  oxen  ?  Yes,  even  the  beast  of 
burden  must  rest.  Nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  ga.tes. 
Even  the  casual  visitor  that  is  in  your  house  must  conform  to 
the  rules  of  a  well-regulated  Christian  household. 

Of  course  there  are  many  practical  difficulties  to  be  encoun- 
tered in  regard  to  the  strict  observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  some 
of  the  classes  in  this  enumeration ;  but  none  of  these  difficulties 
are  really  insurmountable,  and  none  of  them  impair  the  right  of 
every  laborer  to  demand  from  his  employer  a  day  of  rest. 


160  THE  SABBATH. 

How  many  thousands  of  the  sons  of  toil  would  be  gladdened 
by  the  announcement  that  all  the  great  corporations  upon  which 
they  depend  for  employment  and  subsistence,  had  determined 
that  henceforth  no  work  should  be  done  for  tliem  on  Sunday. 
What  an  army  of  machinists  and  brakemen  and  engineers  and 
conductors  and  other  laborers,  would  be  released  from  toil  to  go 
with  their  families  to  the  house  of  God,  if  all  railroads  would 
keep  God's  commandments !  How  many  maid-servants  would 
anticipate  with  delight  the  glad  Sunday  on  which  no  elaborate 
dinners  were  to  be  prepared  for  their  luxurious  masters  and  mis- 
tresses, who  go  to  church  while  they  are  sweltering  in  hot  kitch- 
ens! How  many  clerks  in  small  corner  groceries,  shops,  and 
cigar-stores  would  hail  with  joy  one  day  of  absolute  rest !  And 
would  the  aggregate  sales  of  those  who  engage  in  these  minor 
industries  be  lessened  one  single  cent  ?  Would  not  the  wants 
they  supply  be  the  same  whether  met  on  Sunday  or  provided  for 
on  the  Saturday  previous  ?  Why  is  it  that  men  who  cannot,  like 
the  rich  merchant,  go  out  of  the  city  to  the  sea-side  or  the  moun- 
tains for  rest,  will  voluntarily  deprive  themselves  and  their  fami- 
lies of  these  fifty-two  God-ordained  weekly  vacations,  amounting 
in  all  to  nearly  tsvo  months  of  the  year? 

Secondly.  Man  is  not  only  an  animal,  but  he  is  a  spiritual 
being,  with  a  soul  that  needs  spiritual  culture  and  preparation  for 
the  great  future  that  lies  beyond  the  grave.  I  am  not  now  dis- 
cussing the  question  as  to  how  every  man  should  employ  the  day 
of  rest.  I  am  pleading  for  the  workingmen  and  workingwomen 
of  our  city,  that  they  be  so  released  from  work  as  to  be  permitted 
to  spend  the  Sabbath  in  the  way  ordained  by  God  for  the  culture 
of  their  spiritual  nature.  The  Sabbath  was  ordained  for  man's 
welfare,  not  only  as  a  dull  plodder  in  the  treadmill  of  industry, 
but  as  a  probationer  for  immortality  and  as  a  candidate  for  a 
home  beyond  the  stars.  Give  him  a  day  of  rest,  in  order  that 
he  may  have  a  chance  to  make  it  a  day  of  holy  rest.  Let  not  the 
tyranny  of  capital  cheat  him  out  of  a  vigorous,  joyous,  physical 
life,  and  at  the  same  time  frustrate  his  preparation  for  a  glorious 
spiritual  life,  when  he  shall  have  laid  down  the  tools  of  his 
drudgery  forever. 


THE  SABBATH.  161 

I  come  now  to  a  question  which  has  given  some  thoughtful 
persons  unnecessary  trouble.  The  anti-Sabbatarian  says,  "  How- 
ever strong  the  plea  you  make  for  the  seventh  day,  this  does  not 
prove  that  the  first  day  of  the  week,  or  the  Lord's  Day,  as  you 
call  it,  should  be  kept  sacred." 

I  answer  :  First.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Apostle  Paul,  in 
Colossians  ii.  17,  states  that  the  seventh  day  is  no  longer  our 
Sabbath.  "Wliat  day,  then,  is  it  ?  Some  day  must  be  substi- 
tuted. The  moral  law  is  not  abolished.  What  day  more  likely 
or  appropriate  than  that  which  commemorates  Christ's  entering 
into  His  rest,  as  God  did  after  the  creation,  on  the  seventh  ? 

The  day  may  be  changed  without  vitiating  the  essence  of  the 
command  to  rest  one  day  in  seven.  ISTo  other  day  than  Sunday 
has  a  shadow  of  claim.  It  must  be  this  or  none.  It  cannot  be 
none,  for  then  the  moral  law  would  be  abolished  ;  therefore  it 
must  be  this.  The  change  in  the  day  involves  no  change  in  the 
essence  of  the  Sabbath.  The  fourth  command  does  not  make 
the  seventh  day  holy,  but  it  makes  the  rest-day  holy — for  this  is 
the  meaning  of  the  word  Sabbath.  "  Remember  the  rest-day  to 
keep  it  holy."  "  Wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  rest-day  and 
hallowed  it." 

Secondly.  The  fact  is  indisputable  that  inspired  Apostles  and 
their  associates,  immediately  after  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  avow 
that  they  are  no  longer  bound  to  the  seventh  day,  and  at  once 
observe  the  Lord's  Day  as  a  religious  festival.  Now  couple  this 
with  the  fact  that  they  knew  that  they,  with  all  the  rest  of  the 
world,  were  commanded  to  keep  a  Sabbath,  and  the  inference  is 
irresistible  that  the  authority  by  which  they  observed  the  Lord's 
Day  was  from  God,  though  they  do  not  say  so. 

In  the  same  direction  is  the  testimony  of  the  Christian  fathers 
— Justin  Martyr,  Tertullian,  Irenseus,  Origen,  Cyprian,  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  and  the  author  of  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas.  Euse- 
bius  says,  "  All  things  which  it  was  a  duty  to  do  on  the  Sabbath, 
these  we  have  transferred  to  the  Lord's  Day  as  more  appropri- 
ately belonging  to  it,  because  it  has  the  precedence,  and  is  first  in 
rank  and  more  honorable  than  the  Jewish  Sabbath." 

And  it  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  as  Moses,  the  first  law- 


162  THE  SABBATH. 

giver  of  enfranchised  Israel,  was  commanded  to  republisli  tTie 
obsolete  law  of  tlie  Sabbath,  so  Constantine,  the  first  Christian 
emperor,  legalized  the  Lord's  Day  by  an  edict  applicable  to 
pagans  2^,  well  as  Christians. 

It  is  sometimes  flippantly  said  by  those  who  have  not  gone  to 
the  roots  of  things,  that  the  State  has  no  concern  with  tl^e  Sab- 
bath, and  hence  has  no  right  to  enact  laws  in  regard  to  Sunday. 
If  by  this  is  meant  that  the  State  has  no  right  to  enforce  the  ob- 
servance of  Sunday  as  an  ordinance  of  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom, 
granted.  Such  observance  must  be  secured  by  the  powerful  per- 
suasions of  the  pulpit,  and  by  the  godly  training  of  Christian 
families.  But  if  it  be  meant  that  the  State  has  nothing  to  do 
with  the  enforcement  of  the  original  institute  of  God,  before 
man  needed  redemption,  then  this  is  merely  a  disguised  denial  of 
the  doctrine  that  the  State  derives  all  its  authority  from  God. 
Christians  who  advocate  this  view  of  the  relation  of  the  State  to 
the  Sabbath  know  not  what  they  are  doing.  They  are  striking 
at  the  very  foundation  of  all  government,  and  are  playing  into 
the  hands  of  those  atheistical  enemies  of  Christianity,  who  know 
that  if  they  abolish  the  Sabbath  they  will  abolish  Christianity, 
but  who  do  not  seem  to  know  that  if  they  succeed  in  this,  they 
will  also  destroy  all  the  foundations  of  free  institutions. 

Since  the  State  itself  is  an  ordinance  of  God  for  the  good  of 
man,  it  is  charged  with  the  duty  of  enforcing  outward  conformity 
to  the  law  of  God.  And  the  same  argument  which  denies  the 
right  of  the  State  to  legislate  on  a  day  of  rest,  would  prove  that 
it  has  no  right  to  legislate  on  murder,  theft,  adultery,  or  any 
other  violations  of  the  moral  law.  The  argument  is  self-destruc- 
tive, because  it  proves  too  much.  If,  as  I  have  shown,  the  law  of 
the  Sabbath  was  primeval,  given  before  man  needed  redemption, 
adapted  to  secure  his  welfare  as  an  animal,  and  as  a  spiritual 
being,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  binding  on  the  entire  race — on  Hin- 
doos, Jews,  Mohammedans,  and  Christians,  and  that  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  State  to  conserve  the  interests  and  welfare  of  all  its  citizens 
in  this  regard.  If  the  State  recognized  its  high  functions  as  the 
minister  of  God,  it  would  arrest  every  railway  train,  tie  up  every 
steamboat,  stop  every  mail,  shut  up  every  barber-shop  and  grocery, 


THE  SABBATH.  163 

silence  the  clangor  of  every  machine-shop  and  printing-press — ■ 
not  in  the  interest  of  religion,  be  it  observed,  but  in  the  interest 
of  rest  for  the  men  and  women  who  are  employed  in  the  service 
of  those  who  create  the  demand  for  their  labor.  It  would  close 
every  saloon  and  beer-garden  in  the  city — not  in  the  interest  of 
temperance,  be  it  observed,  but  in  the  interest  of  rest,  because 
dissipation  is  inconsistent  with  rest.  It  would  close  all  theatres 
and  other  places  of  amusement ;  it  would  arrest  all  base-ball  clubs 
and  brass  bands  and  performances  at  public  gardens — not  because 
it  is  the  function  of  the  State  to  decide  upon  the  morahty  of  cer- 
tain questionable  amusements,  but  because  these  exciting  amuse- 
ments are  inconsistent  with  that  rest  of  soul  and  body  for  which 
a  day  of  rest  was  ordained,  and  because  the  pleasure-seeker  has 
no  right  for  his  own  amusement  to  create  a  demand  for  the  labor 
of  those  who  pander  to  his  tastes,  and  thus  defraud  them  of  a 
day  of  rest. 

The  votaries  of  pleasure  are  fond  of  quoting  my  text,  "  The 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  etc.,"  as  if  it  teaches  that  the  Sab- 
bath was  made  for  man  to  do  as  he  pleases  with  it.  Precisely  similar 
would  be  the  reasoning,  "Woman  is  made  for  man,  therefore 
communism  is  allowable ;  and  the  law  of  marriage  is  a  tyranny  "  ; 
or,  "  Property  was  made  for  man,  therefore  agrarianism  is  right." 
To  say  that  God's  Sabbath  was  made  for  man  that  it  might  be 
used  for  amusements,  which,  like  some  in  this  city,  would  have 
brought  the  blush  to  the  cheek  of  a  citizen  of  ancient  Pompeii, 
is  a  contradiction  in  terms. 

The  gradual  encroachments  made  ever  since  the  war,  upon  the 
poor  man's  day  of  rest,  ought  to  startle  the  community  as  soon 
as  attention  is  directed  to  them,  and  ought  to  arouse  them  as  one 
man  to  the  work  of  stemming  the  tide  that  threatens  to  drown 
the  whole  people  in  utter  godlessness.  One  trade  after  another  has 
been  forced  to  succumb  to  the  rapacity  and  greed  of  capital,  and 
to  the  demands  of  the  lovers  of  pleasure.  Unless  these  demands 
and  these  encroachments  are  resisted,  all  the  bone  and  muscle  of 
society  will  be  forced  into  the  chain-gang,  and  doomed  to  unend- 
ing toil,  with  no  opportunity  for  the  spiritual  culture  of  them- 
selves or  of  their  children. 


164       s.  THE  SABBATH. 

In  the  year  1834  a  graceful  writer  for  Blackwood  invented 
a  thrilling  tale  of  a  political  prisoner  immured  in  a  dungeon, 
whose  portals  never  opened  twice  on  a  living  captive.  Its  roof, 
floor,  and  sides  were  made  of  massive  iron  plates,  the  joints  of 
which  were  skilfully  concealed.  High  above  his  head  there  ran 
a  range  of  seven  grated  windows  which  admitted  light  and  air. 

On  the  morning  after  the  first  night  of  his  captivity,  he 
counted  the  windows ;  and  could  he  have  been  mistaken  ?  JSTow, 
there  were  only  six  ;  on  the  next  morning  he  counted  only  five ; 
on  the  next,  but  four  ;  on  the  next,  but  three ;  on  the  next,  but 
two ;  on  the  next,  only  one. 

Ah !  there  was  no  mistake  now.  His  dungeon  was  getting 
smaller  every  day.  But  surely  his  remorseless  tormentor  would 
relent  and  leave  him  this  last  window  through  which  the  light 
of  heaven  might  pour. 

But  as  the  almost  noiseless  walls  began  to  contract,  the  hor- 
rible truth  flashes  upon  him.  "Yes,"  he  exclaimed,  looking 
round  his  dungeon,  and  shuddering  as  he  spoke  ;  "  Yes,  it  must 
be  so,  I  see  it  now ;  I  feel  the  maddening  truth  like  scorching 
flames  upon  my  brain.  Yes,  yes,  this  is  to  be  my  fate  !  Yon 
roof  will  descend ;  these  walls  will  hem  me  round ;  I  shall  be 
shut  up  and  at  last  crushed  in  an  iron  shroud." 

It  is  for  this  "  last  window  in  the  prison  of  the  sons  of  toil " 
that  I  am  pleading  to-day.  They  remember  the  years  of  child- 
hood, when  every  day  was  a  day  of  light  and  gladness.  They 
remember  how  "shades  of  the  prison  house  began  to  close 
around  the  growing  boy  ";  and  as  years  advanced,  how  cares  in- 
creased and  burdens  multiplied,  and  the  world  grew  very  dark, 
and  life  seemed  hardly  worth  living. 

Oh  !  let  not  their  only  day  of  sunshine  on  which  God's  holy 
light  may  pour  in  upon  their  souls  be  clouded  too.  Let  not  the 
last  window  of  a  holy  Sabbath  be  closed,  if  you  would  not  have 
them  crushed  beneath  the  ponderous  roof  and  between  the  col- 
lapsing sides  of  a  pitiless.  Godless  Iron  shroud. 


XV. 
WHAT  IS  LIFE? 

"  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone." — Matt.  iv.  4. 

The  whole  significance  of  the  text  to  you  depends  upon  what 
you  understand  by  the  word  Life.  For  there  are  many  who 
would  readily  admit  the  truth  of  the  text  who  lead  a  life  which 
denies  it. 

What,  then,  do  you  understand  by  life  ?     Wliat  is  it  to  live  ? 

Observe  that  the  text  concedes  that  man  does  live  by  bread, 
but  denies  that  "  bread  alone  "  is  the  means  of  Hfe.  And  it  is 
because  men  lose  sight  of  this  important  qualification  in  the  con- 
cession that  they  fall  into  the  snare  of  the  devil. 

It  is  right  to  labor  for  the  support  of  the  body.  Bread  is 
essential,  and  it  can  only  be  had  by  incessant  labor.  The  primal 
curse  imposed  upon  man  the  irksome  necessity.  "  In  the  sweat 
of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  thy  bread."  "  He  that  laboreth,"  says 
Solomon,  "  laboreth  for  himself,  for  his  mouth  requireth  it  of 
him."  Of  course,  then,  I  freely  admit  that  men  must  take 
thought  for  what  they  shall  eat.  But  it  is  just  at  the  point  of 
this  concession  that  the  tempter  persuades  them  that  this  is  all 
that  is  essential  to  life. 

Let  us  trace  a  few  of  the  practical  results  of  the  abnegation  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  text. 

I.  The  first  necessary  consequence  of  this  theoretical  sensual- 
ism is  the  inordinate  desire  of  accumulation,  so  rife  in  the  church 
and  the  world.  If  life,  in  the  sense  held  by  the  men  of  whom  I 
speak,  is  of  paramount  importance,  then  the  inference  is  imme- 
diate that  men  ought  to  be  laying  up  treasures  to  maintain  it 
against  an  evil  day.  That  such  a  view  of  life  leads  to  covetous- 
ness,  is  distinctly  stated  by  our  Lord  in  the  caution  He  gave  to 

(165) 


166  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

the  man  wlio  begged  Him  to  interfere  in  the  division  of  an  es- 
tate :  "  Take  heed  and  beware  of  covetousness  ;  for  a  man's  Kfe 
consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he  possesseth." 
Now,  that  many  men  entertain  the  view  of  hfe  which  our  Sav- 
iour condemns,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  one  of  the  most 
popular  maxims  of  worldly  prudence  is  this  :  "  Make  all  you  can, 
and  keep  all  you  make." 

It  is  true  that  a  man  may  practice  this  maxim  and  remain  an 
honest  man ;  but  the  transition  is  very  easy  from  covetousness, 
to  dubious  views  respecting  the  distinction  between  legitimate 
and  illegitimate  modes  of  acquiring  wealth.  By  the  ardent  pur- 
suit of  wealth  as  a  good  in  itself,  the  moral  sensibilities  are  im- 
paired and  the  conscience  blunted;  and  hence  you  will  find 
the  man  who  began  life  with  this  maxim  as  his  motto,  at  a  later 
period  expressing  the  conviction  that  a  man  is  entitled  to  all  he 
can  make,  and,  in  practice,  giving  a  very  Uberal  interpretation 
to  the  word  "  can,"  making  it  cover  transactions  of  doubtful 
honesty,  and  justifying  all  the  tricks  of  trade.  It  is  true  that 
what  is  called  high  commercial  integrity  is  found  to  coexist  with 
an  inordinate  desire  for  wealth  ;  but  that  is  produced  by  the  con- 
straints of  selfishness,  and  not  by  virtuous  principles.  Many  a 
man  is  honest  in  performance  merely  because  "  honesty  is  the 
best  policy,"  who  is  a  thorough  knave  at  heart,  his  honesty  be- 
ing nourished  in  the  soil  of  intense  self-love.  No  man  can  be 
inordinately  covetous  and  be  at  heart  an  honest  man. 

Another  result  of  this  theoretical  sensualism  is  the  utter 
destitution  of  all  real  benevolence.  When  this  habit  of  heart  is 
fixed,  it  intrenches  itself  behind  two  favorite  maxims  of  worldly 
prudence — one,  secretly  whispered  within  the  heart  in  order  to 
fortify  it  against  all  the  claims  of  charity,  which  reads  thus  :  "  A 
penny  saved  is  a  penny  earned  ";  the  other,  which  is  flouted  de- 
fiantly in  the  face  of  any  one  who  begs  a  pittance  for  a  distant 
philanthropy,  embodied  thus :  "  Charity  begins  at  home."  It  is 
impossible  for  the  man  who  loves  money  for  its  own  sake,  or  on 
account  of  its  power  to  provide  him  bread,  to  be  a  truly  benevo- 
lent man. 

Another  result  of  this  false  view  of  life  is  a  scoffing  skepticism 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  167 

in  regard  to  tlie  existence  of  those  virtues  in  others,  in  whicli  the 
man  is  conscious  of  his  own  deficiency.  Men  judge  others  by 
themselves.  They  rarely  accord  to  others  virtues  which  they  do 
not  themselves  possess.  Especially  is  this  true  of  those  who  have 
formed  no  conceptions  of  a  higher  life  than  their  own,  and  have 
never  experienced  the  inherent  pleasure  of  elevated,  virtuous 
affections.  "Whenever,  therefore,  they  are  called  upon  to  forecast 
the  probable  conduct  of  others,  or  to  interpret  their  actions,  they 
always  apply  their  own  little  standard  of  measure.  As  the  result 
of  their  study  of  human  nature,  such  men  will  enlighten  you 
with  profound  proverbs  like  these :  "  Touch  a  man's  pocket  and 
you  touch  his  heart,"  "  Every  man  has  his  price."  What  a  melan- 
choly aspect  must  human  nature  wear  in  the  eyes  of  a  man  who 
believes  that  these  proverbs  are  universally  true !  How  thoroughly 
pervaded  by  the  essence  of  sensualism  must  that  man  be  who  can 
thus  ignore  the  possibility  of  virtue's  ever  rising  superior  to  the 
miserable  creed  of  those  who  beheve  that  man  doth  live  by  bread 
alone. 

Still  another  result  of  this  wretched  creed  is  an  inveterate 
utilitarianism  in  all  its  forms.  Cici  hono  f  "  What  is  the  good 
of  it  ? "  is  the  query  it  propounds  to  every  scheme  of  public  en- 
terprise, to  every  endeavor  to  refine  the  public  taste  or  improve 
the  general  condition  of  the  community.  Not,  what  good  to  the 
public  ?  But,  what  good  to  me  ?  Indeed,  it  often  propounds  the 
same  question  to  every  endeavor  to  enlist  it  in  the  work  of  its 
own  culture  and  improvement.  The  man  pervaded  by  this  spirit 
ignores  his  own  mind  and  soul.  He  has  no  desire  for  the  intel- 
lectual culture  either  of  himself  or  his  family.  The  world  of 
knowledge  and  the  world  of  beauty  in  nature  and  in  art  are  to 
him  like  the  veiled  Isis.  He  never  knows,  nor  does  he  care  to 
know,  the  secrets  they  conceal.  He  would  not,  if  he  could, 
drain  one  of  their  hundred  breasts.  He  maintains  with  stolid 
obstinacy  the  dead  level  of  his  grovelling  spirit,  and  walks  the 
treadmill  circle  of  the  unlettered  hind  who  "  glorieth  in  the  goad 
and  whose  talk  is  always  of  bullocks."  Now,  from  such  a  posi- 
tion there  is  but  one  step  to  a  loss  of  all  principle  and  to  the 
basest  sordidness  of  character.     The  man  who  is  industrious  in 


168  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

order  to  make  his  living  is  doing  the  right  thing  ;  but,  if  he  goes 
beyond,  and  makes  money  itself  the  end  of  his  labor ;  if  he  is 
bent,  not  only  on  competence,  but  accumulation  ;  if  he  is  making 
haste  to  be  rich  for  the  sake  of  being  rich,  he  has  already  fallen 
into  the  snare  of  the  devil.  Let  a  man  once  lose  the  practical 
distinction  between  making  money  to  live  and  hviug  to  make 
money ;  let  him  once  yield  himself  to  the  dominion  of  the 
"  almighty  dollar,"  and  his  moral  character  is  ruined.  Pie  will 
soon  come  to  regard  wealth  and  goodness  as  synonymous,  and  his 
spirit  will  soon  be  the  abject  slave  of  Mammon.  If,  now,  at  this 
point,  the  lust  of  the  flesh  is  brought  into  collision  with  principle 
by  any  great  temptation,  the  man  will  almost  surely  discard  the 
last  vestige  of  his  integrity,  even  at  the  risk  of  the  loss  of  repu- 
tation ;  and  he  will  certainly  do  this  if  he  has  hope  of  conceal- 
ment. In  this  way  I  account  for  the  sad  defection  from  honesty 
so  common  among  old  men — men  whose  integrity  had  stood 
proof  against  a  thousand  previous  temptations.  We  may  lay  it 
down  as  a  truth  established  by  the  widest  induction,  that  when 
the  naked  alternative  of  bread  or  principle  is  presented  to  him 
who  holds  that  man  can  "  live  by  bread  alone,"  he  will  sacrifice 
principle  for  bread.  There  have  been  many  conspicuous  exam- 
ples illustrating  the  power  of  the  opposite  principle  in  enabling 
men  to  overcome  the  tem23tations  based  upon  an  appeal  to  their 
bodily  necessities.  I  shall  mention  only  one,  which  for  moral 
sublimity  has  hardly  a  parallel  in  history — an  example  which  is 
especially  pertinent,  because  the  precise  alternative  presented  was 
the  sacrifice  of  principle  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  sacrifice,  not 
of  luxuries,  but  of  daily  bread,  on  the  other. 

You  have  all  heard  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  ;  but  per- 
haps you  do  not  all  remember  that  this  Church  owes  its  present 
existence  to  the  heroic  assertion  by  her  ministry,  in  the  ears  of 
all  mankind,  that  "  man  doth  not  live  by  bread  alone." 

A  brief  statement,  abridged  from  Hanna's  "  Life  of  Chalmers," 
will  put  you  in  possession  of  the  prominent  facts. 

Previous  to  the  year  ISIS,  the  Church  of  Scotland  was  con- 
nected with  the  State,  and  "  established  "  by  law.  Her  ministers 
derived  their  support  from  endowments.     On  this  ground,  the 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  169 

civil  courts  claimed  jurisdiction  over  her  spiritual  affairs.  Her 
ministers  resisted  what  they  considered  an  invasion  of  their  juris- 
diction. After  much  negotiation  the  British  Parhament  decided 
in  favor  of  the  ruling  of  the  civil  courts.  The  issue  was  now 
distinctly  made  up  ;  and  the  question  was  whether  a  church  that 
for  years  had  been  peacefully  united  with  the  State  should  re- 
nounce her  principles,  or,  refusing  to  do  this,  her  ministers  should 
become  outcasts  and  beggars.  Men  of  the  world  hooted  at  the 
idea  that  those  poor  ministers  would  think  of  abandoning  their 
comfortable  manses  and  adequate  incomes  for  the  sake  of  a  mere 
spiritual  abstraction.  Even  such  a  man  as  Dr.  Gumming,  of 
London,  himself  a  Scotchman,  assured  the  government  that  the 
Church  would  yield  rather  than  starve.  One  of  the  most  saga- 
cious statesmen  in  Edinburgh  said,  "  Mark  my  words  :  not  forty 
of  them  will  go  out." 

The  next  meeting  of  the  General  Assembly  was  the  first  oc- 
casion on  which  events  would  determine  how  far  these  proph- 
ecies were  founded  in  wisdom. 

The  day  of  trial  came  at  last.  Edinburgh  was  crowded  with 
visitors  from  every  village  and  hamlet  in  Scotland  who  came  to 
see  the  issue.  The  church  of  St.  Andrew's,  where  the  Assembly 
was  to  convene,  was  filled  with  spectators  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  who  knew  that  they  must  wait  nine  houi's  in  their 
seats  before  the  session  would  begin.  As  the  day  advanced,  busi- 
ness was  almost  entirely  suspended  throughout  the  great  city. 
Crowds  gathered  in  the  streets,  all  faces  wearing  a  grave  and 
earnest  cast.  No  wonder  Presbyterian  Scotland  was  thus  deeply 
thoughtful  and  anxious.  The  honor  of  the  National  Church 
and  her  very  existence  as  a  spiritual  organization  were  at  stake. 
She  was  to  decide  that  day  whether  she  would  sacrifice  her  con- 
science or  her  bread.  Her  ministry  were  about  to  be  called  on 
to  say  whether  or  not  thenceforward  she  should  be  as  sounding 
brass  and  tinkhng  cymbal,  a  hissing  and  a  byword  to  all  passers- 
b}^  As  hour  after  hour  elapsed,  the  strained  feeling  of  the  mul- 
titude who  occupied  every  inch  of  sitting  and  standing  ground 
in  St.  Andrew's  was  beginning  to  relax.  At  last,  however,  the 
rapid  entrance  of  a  large  body  of  ministers  into  the  space  railed 


170  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

ofi  for  the  members,  told  that  the  Assembly  was  about  to  con- 
vene. Dr.  Welsh,  the  moderator,  entered  and  took  the  chair. 
Soon  afterward  his  Grace,  the  Lord  High  Commissioner,  was  an- 
nounced; and  the  whole  assemblage  received  him  standing. 
Solemn  prayer  was  then  offered.  The  members  having  resumed 
their  seats.  Dr.  Welsh  rose.  By  the  eager  pressm-e  forward,  the 
"  Hush  !  Hush  ! "  that  burst  from  so  many  hps,  the  anxiety  to 
hear  threatened  to  defeat  itself.  The  disturbance  lasted  but  a 
moment. 

"  Fathers  and  brethren,"  said  Dr.  Welsh,  and  now  every  syl- 
lable fell  upon  the  ear  amidst  the  breathless  stillness  that  pre- 
vailed, "  according  to  the  usual  form  of  procedure,  this  is  the 
time  for  making  up  the  roll.  But,  in  consequence  of  certain 
proceedings  of  her  Majesty's  government  affecting  our  rights 
and  privileges,  I  must  protest  against  our  proceeding  further. 
The  reasons  which  have  led  me  to  this  conclusion  are  fully  set 
forth  in  the  document  I  hold  in  my  hand,  which,  with  the  per- 
mission of  the  house,  I  will  proceed  to  read." 

He  then  read  The  Protest  against  the  encroachments  of  the 
Civil  Court,  which,  after  reciting  the  wrongs  inflicted  on  the 
Church,  closes  with  the  announcement  that  the  signers  of  that 
paper,  then  and  there,  renounce  their  livings  and  deliver  up 
the  keys  of  all  the  churches  and  manses  to  the  government, 
because  of  its  interference  with  the  conscience  of  the  ministry 
and  the  supreme  spiritual  authority  of  Christ  in  His  Church. 
Having  read  the  protest,  Dr.  Welsh  laid  it  upon  the  table,  turned, 
bowed  respectfully  to  the  Lord  High  Commissioner,  left  the 
platform,  and  proceeded  down  the  aisle  to  the  door  of  the  church. 
Dr.  Chalmers,  in  his  nervous  way,  seized  his  hat  and  followed  ; 
all  the  great  leaders — Campbell,  Gordon,  McDonald,  McFarlan — 
of  course,  went  out  with  them.  This  was  the  critical  moment. 
It  was  easy  enough  for  such  men  as  Chalmers  to  give  up  their 
government  patronage ;  for  they  were  great  lights  in  literature 
as  well  as  theology,  and  they  were  the  idols  of  the  nation.  But 
would  the  obscure  village  pastors,  who  must  the  next  day  leave 
their  manses  and  go  forth  houseless  — would  they  dare  to  re- 
nounce the  Establishment  ? 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  171 

The  whole  body  rose  to  their  feet.  Man  after  man,  row  after 
row,  moved  down  the  aisle,  until  the  benches,  lately  so  crowded, 
showed  scarcely  an  occupant.  A  vast  multitude  thronged  George 
Street  outside,  and  crowded  in  upon  the  church  doors.  And  when 
they  saw  the  forms  of  their  most  venerated  clergymen  emerging 
from  the  church,  they  sent  up  a  shout  of  stern  but  sacred  joy 
that  shook  the  very  walls  of  the  ancient  city.  No  wonder  that 
the  stern  old  Presbyterians  were  filled  with  a  frenzy  of  en- 
thusiasm. They  were  standing  under  the  shadow  of  edifices, 
every  tower  and  turret  of  which  was  radiant  with  historic  glory. 
They  were  treading  on  soil  that  had  mingled  with  the  ashes  and 
drunk  the  blood  of  Presbyterian  martyrs. 

The  church  from  which  the  procession  emerged  was  the  very 
one  in  which  John  Knox  "  first  opened  his  mouth  in  public 
to  the  glory  of  God."  In  sight  was  the  cathedral  where  he 
preached  in  defiance  of  the  Bishop  of  St.  Andrew's  attended  by 
his  file  of  loaded  muskets.  Near  by  was  the  church  of  St.  Giles, 
whose  rafters  once  rang  with  the  voice  of  Knox  thundering 
against  the  "  idolatrous  Jezebel,"  Mary.  A  little  beyond,  but  in 
full  view  of  many,  stood  the  old  Grayfriars,  upon  a  level  stone 
in  whose  graveyard  a  whole  nation,  200  years  before,  had  signed 
the  National  Covenant  of  resistance  to  Charles  I.,  Archbishop 
Laud,  and  Episcopacy.  They  were  standing  on  the  very  spot 
where  Patrick  Hamilton,  the  protomartyr  of  the  Scottish  Ref- 
ormation, died  at  the  stake,  as  only  one  of  God's  heroes  can 
die.  They  were  treading  over  the  tablet  under  which  once  lay 
the  remains,  and  on  which  were  cut  the  initials  "  J.  K.,"  of  the 
intrepid  Presbyterian  "  who  never  feared  the  face  of  man." 

With  all  these  glorious  memories  recalled  by  these  architect- 
ural surroundings  thronging  their  minds,  no  wonder  that  their 
bosoms  glowed  with  a  holy  joy  when  they  beheld  a  visible  dem- 
onstration that  the  heroism  of  their  Calvinistic  ancestors  had 
descended  to  their  sons,  and  that  God's  truth  is  immortal. 

Tliere  was  no  design  on  the  part  of  the  seceding  clergymen  to 
form  into  a  procession  ;  but  they  were  forced  into  it  by  the  nar- 
rowness of  the  lane  opened  for  them  through  the  heart  of  the 
crowd.     As  they  marched  three  abreast,  they  were  in  full  view 


172  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

of  tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  who  had  come  from 
all  parts  of  Scotland  to  see  if  they  would  dare  to  do  the  deed. 
"  Some  smiled  in  mockery.  Some  gazed  in  stupid  wonder.  The 
vast  majority  looked  on  in  silent  admiration ;  while  here  and 
there,  as  the  daughter  or  wife  of  some  outgoing  minister  caught 
sight  of  a  father's  or  a  husband's  form,  accomplishing  an  act 
which  was  to  leave  his  family  homeless,  warm  tear-drops  formed 
which,  as  if  half  ashamed  of  them,  the  hand  of  faith  was  in 
haste  to  wipe  away." 

Elsewhere  in  the  city,  Lord  Jeffrey,  a  nobleman  "who  cared 
for  none  of  these  things,"  was  sitting  in  his  quiet  chamber  read- 
ing. Some  one  burst  in  upon  him  exclaiming,  "  Well,  what  do 
you  think  of  it  ?  More  than  four  hundred  of  them  have  actually 
gone  out."  He  dashed  his  book  to  the  floor  and  sprang  to  his 
feet,  shouting,  "  I  am  proud  of  my  country ;  there  is  not  another 
land  on  earth  where  such  a  deed  could  have  been  done." 

Such  is  a  brief  history  of  the  Exodus  of  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland.  She  marched  forth  homeless  into  the  wilderness,  de- 
spising the  fleshpots  of  the  Establishment,  her  banner  inscribed 
with  the  historic  legend  of  the  ancient  Church  of  Israel,  "  Man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every  word  which  proceed- 
eth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God."  In  a  wonderful  dispensation 
of  Providence,  she  has  been  fed  with  the  heavenly  manna,  and 
with  meat  that  her  oppressors  knew  not  of.  And  she  stands  this 
day  the  light  and  glory  of  that  land — strong  in  her  resources, 
strong  in  her  faith,  and  only  purified  by  the  fiery  ordeal  through 
which  she  was  called  to  pass.  The  Lord  has  given  her  grace,  and 
the  Lord  has  given  her  glory.  He  "  has  withheld  no  good  thing 
from  her,  because  she  walked  uprightly." 

My  hearers,  you  may  never  be  called  to  such  a  conspicuous 
display  of  the  conflicts  which  must  go  on  in  your  souls  between 
principle  and  bread :  but  if  you  would  triumph  in  your  little 
struggles  with  temptation,  you  will  be  victorious  only  as  you 
imitate  her  example  in  believing  that  the  life  of  a  man  "  consist- 
eth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he  possesseth."  Perhaps 
I  have  dwelt  too  long  on  this  division  of  the  subject,  but  I  could 
not  refrain  from  warning  my  younger  hearers  against  the  gross 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  173 

and  sensual  views  of  life  which  characterize  the  practical  philos- 
ophy of  our  times,  and  I  would  raise  my  voice  to  rescue  you  from 
the  fate  of  those  miserable  old  men  whom  you  see  all  around 
you,  who  have  emasculated  their  souls  and  squandered  their  lives 
in  laying  up  for  themselves — what  ? — only  riches,  wretchedness, 
and  spiritual  ruin. 

II.  But  there  is  another  mistake  in  regard  to  life  which, 
although  nobler  in  origin  than  that  just  discussed,  is  none  the 
less  a  mistake  fatal  to  the  true  life  of  the  soul — the  error  of  sup- 
posing that  the  life  of  a  man  consists  in  the  cultivation  of  his 
intellect. 

Says  Dr.  Chalmers :  "  The  pleasures  of  the  intellect,  though 
calm,  are  intense,  insomuch  that  a  life  of  deep  philosophy  is  a 
life  of  deep  emotion.  Even  in  the  remotest  abstraction  of  con- 
templative truth  there  is  a  glory  and  a  transcendental  pleasure 
that  the  world  knoweth  not."  When,  in  addition  to  the  pleasure 
the  intellectual  man  derives  from  the  acquisition  of  knowledge, 
he  considers  the  practical  power  it  gives  him  to  benefit  his  race, 
the  really  beneficial  influence  he  may  exercise  through  its  instru- 
mentality, it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  come  at  last  to  tliink 
that  life  consists  in  the  accumulation  of  knowledge,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  the  intellect.  Intimately  connected  with  the  satisfac- 
tion which  flows  from  the  culture  of  the  understanding,  are  the 
pleasures  of  taste.     The  universe  not  only  teems  with  truth,  but 

it  is  profusely  garnished  with  all  the  elements  of  beauty 

Now,  the  man  who  sees  and  feels  this  in  J^ature,  must  know  that 
he  is  living  a  far  more  exalted  life  than  the  mere  man  of  business 
who  walks  through  the  world  unconscious  that  he  is  moving 
about  in  a  palace  fit  for  the  abode  of  angels.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  he  should  at  last  believe  that  that  which  so  exalts  his  being 
above  the  grosser  pleasures  of  the  senses,  is  indeed  the  very  wine 
of  life  drawn  from  the  fountain  of  immortality.  And  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  man  of  cultivated  taste  does  live  an  infi- 
nitely higher  life  than  the  mere  sensuahst,  and  is  effectually  forti- 
fied against  the  indulgence  of  the  baser  appetites.  Perhaps  there 
is  no  class  of  intellectual  men  who  realize  more  deeply  than  the 


174  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

lovers  of  the  beautiful  the  tnitli  that  "man  does  not  live  by 
bread  alone." 

Now  add  to  this  the  universal  homage  paid  even  by  the  sensual 
and  sordid  to  intellectual  culture,  the  unconscious  and  instinctive 
tribute  which  rudeness  renders  to  refinement,  the  undisputed 
supremacy  which  the  educated  mind  maintains  over  the  mere 
working  mind  of  a  community  ;  and  it  is  still  less  surprising  that 
many  should  think  the  solution  of  the  problem,  "  "What  is  it  to 
live  ? "  is  to  be  found  in  the  culture  of  the  intellect,  and  the  re- 
finement of  the  taste. 

Although  the  number  who  really  take  this  higher  view  of  life 
may  be  small,  still  there  are  some  here  to-day.  It  may  not  be 
amiss  to  assure  any  and  all  such  that  the  merely  intellectual  man 
has  not  solved  the  problem,  "  "What  is  life  ? "  He  has,  indeed, 
reached  the  truth  that  man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone  ;  but  he 
has  grasped  only  a  part  of  the  truth,  when  he  thinks  that  the 
activity  of  the  mind  makes  up  the  complement  of  life.  "  Man 
liveth  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God." 

It  is  true  that  the  universe  is  a  revelation  of  God,  and  every 
floweret  is  an  expression  of  divine  thought ;  but  he  who  has 
studied  nature  with  the  eye  merely  of  a  savant  or  an  artist,  for  the 
sake  of  satisfying  the  cravings  of  his  intellect  or  his  taste  only, 
has  stopped  short  of  the  goal.  Like  the  impotent  astrologers  at 
the  court  of  Belshazzar,  he  beholds  the  handwriting  of  God,  but 
he  knows  not  the  interpretation  thereof.  I  may  go  even  further, 
and  admit  that  mere  knowledge  may  lead  a  man  from  the  con- 
templation of  Nature  to  the  recognition  of  God,  and  to  a  senti- 
mental worship  of  the  Great  Architect ;  and  still  he  may  be 
totally  ignorant  of  the  higher  life  of  the  soul.  For  in  this  con- 
nection we  must  never  forget  that  the  highest  intellectual  devel- 
opment may  coexist  with  an  utter  destitution  of  holiness.  The 
history  of  the  human  intellect  affords  many  examples  of  gigantic 
intellectual  powers,  large  and  varied  attainment,  coupled  with 
moral  depravity  and  spiritual  blindness.  And  this  brings  me  to 
the  last  division  of  this  discourse. 

III.  Life,  in  its  highest  acceptation,  must  comprehend,  as  an 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  175 

essential  and  as  a  predominant  element,  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
soul.  Here  I  must  say,  do  not  understand  me  as  depreciating 
intellectual  life,  or  as  intimating  that  it  does  not  enter  largely 
into  spiritual  life.  When  invited  to  the  contemplation  of  intel- 
lect in  its  sublimest  offices  ;  when  I  see  the  highest  displays  of 
its  glory ;  when  I  consider  its  lofty  aspirations,  its  exalted  and 
exalting  sentiments,  its  generous  sympathies,  its  splendid  im- 
aginations, its  ethereal  and  blissful  activity,  its  searching,  lucid, 
and  commanding  reason,  and  its  inborn  thirst  for  truth,  I  glory 
in  the  consciousness  of  being  a  man,  and  that  I  may  enjoy  the 
immunities  of  intellectual  life.  But  I  cannot  forget  that  the 
Word  of  God  declares  that  a  man  may  be  intellectually  alive  and 
yet  dead — dead  in  sin,  devoid  of  all  true  spiritual  life.  I  cannot 
forget  that  the  Scriptures  teach  that  the  chief  end  of  our  present 
life  is  holiness  now  and  happiness  to  come  ;  labor  in  the  present 
for  reward  in  the  future ;  moral  discipline  now  for  perfection 
hereafter.  Intellectual  activity  here  has  therefore  little  value, 
except  so  far  as  it  contributes  to  the  nourishment  of  spiritual 
life  in  this  world,  and  the  attainment  of  eternal  life  in  the  world 
to  come.  No  attentive  reader  of  the  Bible  can  fail  to  observe 
that  the  Scriptures  everywhere  speak  of  a  divine  life  in  the  soul 
as  something  actual,  and  as  entirely  distinct  from  the  ordinary 
activity  of  the  mental  faculties.  Such  expressions  as  these : 
"  Your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God ";  "  The  hfe  which  I 
now  live  in  the  flesh,  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God  "; 
"  To  be  spiritually  -  minded  is  life  ";  "  The  life  of  Jesus 
made  manifest  in  our  mortal  flesh ";  all  show  that  there  is 
a  state  of  the  soul  attainable  in  this  mortal  life,  which  is  called 
"  Spiritual  Life."  At  the  same  time  it  is  very  difficult  to  form  a 
clear  conception  of  what  it  is.  But  the  follo\\ang  statement  is 
true,  though  not  exhaustive  : 

1.  The  divine  life  as  it  may  exist  in  the  human  soul  is  a  su- 
pernatural condition  produced  and  maintained  by  the  direct  per- 
sonal agency  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  It  is  a  real,  vital  change  in 
its  modes  of  being — a  change  and  state  as  real  as  any  of  the 
phenomena  of  external  nature  ;  a  change  as  real  as  would  be  a 
transition  from  physical  or  natural  death  to  physical  or  natural  life. 


176  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

2.  This  spiritual  life  may  be  most  comprehensively  described 
as  consisting  in  the  personal  acquaintance  of  the  soul  with  a  per- 
sonal God,  in  personal  union  with  Jesus  Christ,  and  in  personal 
communion  with  the  Father  and  the  Son  through  the  Spirit  of 
God  actually  dwelling  in  the  soul  as  in  a  temple. 

3.  The  presence  of  this  spiritual  life  in  the  soul  is  manifested 
principally  in  the  acts  of  the  affections  and  the  will  rather  than 
by  any  achievements  of  the  intellect,  although  it  nndoubtedly 
imparts  energy  and  gives  complexion  to  all  the  exercises  of  the 
understanding.  But  since  its  most  direct  influence  is  upon  the 
moral  constitution,  we  detect  its  workings  mainly  in  those  acts 
which  are  the  exponents  of  character. 

4.  Another  characteristic  of  the  divine  life  is  that  into  whatever 
soul  it  enters,  it  enters  to  inaugurate  a  conflict  between  the  prin- 
ciple of  holiness  and  that  of  sin.  That  bosom  is  at  once  an  arena 
where  the  spirit  warreth  against  the  flesh  and  the  flesh  against 
the  spirit.  And  as  the  result  of  this  struggle  there  accrues  to 
the  soul  what  the  Scriptures  call  spiritual  strength,  or  what  we 
call  strength  of  principle — a  strength  to  do,  a  strength  to  suffer, 
a  strength  to  resist  evil.  For  this  the  Apostle  made  intercession 
in  behalf  of  the  Ephesians,  when  he  prayed  continually  that  they 
might  be  "  strengthened  with  all  might  by  the  Spirit  in  the  inner 
man." 

5.  Another  striking  peculiarity  of  the  spiritual  life  is  that,  for 
the  most  part,  it  is  hidden  :  often  unknown  to  the  world  around. 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  often  set  up  in  many  a  heart  "  without 
observation."  In  this  respect  it  differs  from  other  life.  It  is 
hidden,  because  the  animating  principle,  the  vital  operative  ele- 
ment is  not  in  itself,  but  in  another.  It  is  a  life  grafted  into  an- 
other life.     "  Your  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 

It  is  hidden,  in  that  in  its  results  upon  individual  minds  it  is 
directly  the  reverse  of  the  natural  life.  This  seeks  notoriety ; 
that,  retirement  from  the  market-place  ;  this  seeks  companion- 
ship with  man  ;  that,  with  God.  There  may  be,  doubtless  there 
are,  within  these  walls  some  who,  all  unknown  to  the  mass  of 
the  church,  have  been  for  years  growing  up  into  the  perfect 
proportions  of  a  lofty  spiritual  stature  ;  humble  men  and  obscure 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  177 

women  who,  could  we  see  them  as  they  appear  in  the  eye  of 
God,  would  tower  up  above  us  all  in  the  moral  sublimity  and 
grandeur  of  "  the  fulbiess  of  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  men 
in  Christ  Jesus  ";  and  yet  we  know  them  not.  They  have  been 
moving  in  their  noiseless  walk  through  hfe,  accomplishing  a 
ministry  of  doing  and  suffering,  humbly  and  patiently  doing  the 
work  and  bearing  the  burdens  which  God  has  appointed  them. 
Perhaps  they  are  the  sons  and  daughters  of  poverty ;  perhaps 
unlearned  ;  perhaps  regarded  by  the  rich  and  prosperous  as  the 
offscouring  of  the  earth.  Perhaps  they  cannot  even  give  utter- 
ance in  fit  language  to  their  devotion  to  Christ ;  and  yet,  if 
called  to  do,  or  suffer,  or  die  for  Him,  they  would  write  new 
days  in  the  calendar  of  Christian  heroism,  and  leave  names  to  be 
added  to  the  catalogue  of  those  "  of  whom  the  world  was  not 
worthy." 

6.  Still  another  characteristic  of  the  spiritual  hfe  is  that,  when 
it  is  weakest  in  its  own  estimation,  then  it  is  strongest  in  its 
might.  In  this  connection  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  con- 
trast between  intellectual  and  spiritual  strength.  Read  the  de- 
scription of  Mr.  "Webster  just  before  he  was  to  make  his  cele- 
brated reply  to  Mr.  Hayne,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 
It  is  said  of  him,  "  He  perceived  and  felt  equal  to  the  destinies  of 
the  moment.  The  very  greatness  of  the  hazard  exhilarated  him. 
His  spu'its  rose  with  the  occasion.  He  awaited  the  time  of  onset 
with  a  stern,  impatient  joy.  He  felt  like  the  warhorse  who  paw- 
etli  in  the  valley  and  rejoiceth  in  his  strength ;  who  goeth  on  to 
meet  the  armed  man,  who  sayeth  among  the  trumpets.  Ha !  ha ! 
and  who  smelleth  the  battle  afar  off,  the  thunder  of  the  captains 
and  the  shouting." 

We  feel  that  this  is  a  fitting  description  of  gigantic  intellect 
reposing  confidently  upon  its  own  resources.  But  in  the  domain 
of  spiritual  life,  "  man  is  never  so  weak  as  when  he  casts  off  his 
burden  and  stands  upright  and  unincumbered  in  the  strength  of  his 
own  will ;  never  so  strong,  as  when  bowed  down  in  his  feeble- 
ness, tottering  under  the  whole  load  that  God  has  laid  upon  him, 
he  comes  humbly  to  the  throne  of  grace  to  cast  his  care  upon 
God  who  careth  for  him." 


178  WHAT  IS  LIFEf 

Such  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  it 
is  manifest  that  it  requires  for  its  sustentation  something  differ- 
ent from  either  knowledge  or  bread.  It  must  have  "  meat  to  eat 
that  the  world  knows  not  of."  It  must  derive  its  aliment  direct 
from  heaven. 

This  was  the  life  that  Christ  came  to  give  to  men.  "  He  that 
hath  tlie  Son  of  Man  hath  this  life."  And  this  life  can  be  per- 
petuated, as  it  is  originated,  only  by  a  vital  union  with  the  Son 
of  God.  "  For  the  bread  of  God  is  He  which  cometh  down 
from  heaven  and  giveth  life  unto  the  world  ;  and  he  that  eateth 
this  bread  shall  live  forever."  Happy  is  he  who,  sated  with 
the  bread  that  perisheth,  but  still  unsatisfied,  has  turned  away 
from  the  beggarly  elements  of  this  world,  and  cries  out  in  con- 
scious emptiness,  "  Lord,  evermore  give  me  this  bread." 

"  This  spiritual  life  is  a  real,  blessed,  glorious,  mighty  thing. 
It  is  a  life  begotten  of  Love,  incarnate,  redeeming,  crucified  Love. 
It  is  life  given  back  from  an  awful  perdition — the  life  of  a  soul 
reunited  to  God  after  a  dark  apostasy.  It  is  life  from  God  and 
in  God,  as  the  stream  contains  the  waters  of  a  fountain.  By  it 
we  are  made  '  partakers  of  the  divine  nature.'  It  is  life  in  all 
the  opulence,  freshness,  and  glory  of  the  divine  ideal  '  when  man 
was  made  a  living  soul.'  "  It  is  the  very  beginning  and  portal  of 
Eternal  Life. 

Now,  this  spiritual  life  is  within  the  reach  of  every  one  who 
truly  desires  it.  But,  in  order  to  obtain  it,  you  must  be  born 
again ;  you  must  be  made  new  creatures  in  Christ  Jesus.  In 
order  to  eat  of  the  hidden  manna,  you  must  receive  the  "  white 
stone  on  which  is  written  a  name  that  no  man  knoweth,  save  he 
that  receiveth  it."  You  can  never  feed  on  the  heavenly  bread,  or 
drink  with  relish  from  the  living  fountain,  until  you  are  endued 
with  a  life  from  on  high. 

In  this  discourse  I  have  brought  into  vivid  contrast,  sensual, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual  life ;  and,  now  that  the  picture  is  fin- 
ished, I  beg  you  to  compare  the  wretched  pigmy  who  lives  by 
bread  alone,  with  that  man  who  lives  by  every  word  which  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God,  and  decide  wliich  of  these  ]")or- 
traits  shall  be  yours.     If,  when  your  mortal  career  is  about  to 


WHAT  IS  LIFEf  179 

close,  and  you  are  entering  upon  the  long  career  of  your  immor- 
tality, you  would  not  be  a  miserable  dwarf  among  the  lofty  intel- 
ligences of  another  sphere ;  if  you  would  not  enter  into  eternity 
a  poor  starveling,  a  spirit  emaciated  for  want  of  food ;  if  when 
stepping  into  the  Great  Future  you  would  meet  not  strangers, 
but  friends,  in  the  noble  and  august  society  of  heaven ;  if  you 
would  receive  the  congratulations  of  wise  and  great  beings — the 
holy  welcome  offered  by  warm  and  noble  hearts, — then  go  and 
write  it  in  your  ledgers,  write  it  in  your  counting-rooms,  write  it 
in  your  workshops,  write  it  on  the  door-posts  of  your  houses, 
write  it  on  the  fleshly  tablets  of  your  hearts, — "  Man  doth  not 
live  by  bread  alone."  For  as  you  sow  in  your  daily  life,  you  shall 
likewise  reap.  "  He  that  soweth  to  the  flesh  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption  ;  but  he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the 
Spirit  reap  Life,  Zife  Memal." 


XVI. 

FKAGMENTS. 
"  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost."— John  vi.  12. 

OuK  Lord  having  been  absent  from  Capernaum,  wbich  was  on 
the  northwest  side  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  returned  thither,  and 
as  soon  as  His  presence  was  known,  crowds  thronged  around 
Him.  But  He  had  been  engaged  in  arduous  labors  and  needed 
rest.  He  therefore  took  the  twelve  disciples,  and  entering  a  boat, 
they  rowed  northeast  six  miles  to  the  eastern  side  of  the  lake 
beyond  the  mouth  of  the  Jordan,  to  the  plain  of  Batiha,  under 
the  shadow  of  Bethsaida,  where  He  might  rest  in  the  quiet  glens 
that  opened  up  from  the  lake.  But  the  people  seeing  the  direc- 
tion He  took,  ran  around  the  head  of  the  lake ;  and,  as  they  went, 
crowds  joined  them  ;  and  by  the  time  He  had  reached  the  shore, 
the  whole  plain  was  swarming  with  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  sick  and  helpless  had  come,  or  had  been  brought  in  the  arms 
of  friends.  Passing  through  the  crowd,  healing  by  a  word  or 
by  a  touch  all  who  asked  Him,  He  ascended  the  hillside,  and 
gathering  the  multitude  into  a  compact  mass,  He  spoke  unto 
them  the  words  of  God. 

The  day  was  far  spent ;  but  the  people  would  not  go  away. 
The  disciples  urged  Him  to  send  them  away,  that  they  might  buy 
bread  in  the  adjacent  villages.  He  told  them  to  feed  the  people 
themselves.  He  was  not  willing  to  dismiss  them  hungry,  lest 
they  should  faint  by  the  way.  The  disciples  were  amazed ; — 
How  could  they  feed  them  ?  Two  hundred  dollars'  worth  of 
bread,  in  our  money,  would  not  be  enough  to  give  every  one  a 
small  piece ;  and  they  had  only  five  barley  loaves  and  two  small 
fishes.  He  said,  "  Make  them  sit  down." 
(180) 


FRAGMENTS.  181 

It  was  the  montli  Nisan,  the  season  of  flowers.  The  hillside 
was  covered  with  a  carpet  of  grass.  The  long  shadows  from  the 
western  hills  were  projected  across  the  lake.  The  heat  of  the 
sun  was  abating.  The  disciples  arranged  the  multitude  in  com- 
panies of  fifty  and  a  hundred.  He  took  the  five  barley  loaves 
and  the  two  small  fishes  and  began  distributing  food  to  His  dis- 
ciples ;  and  they,  to  the  multitude.  "  And  they  did  all  eat  and 
were  filled."  But  there  was  more  than  enough.  Then  said 
Jesus,  "  Gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be 
lost."  And  they  took  up  twelve  baskets  fuU — a  great  deal  more 
than  they  had  at  first. 

You  can  form  some  conception  of  the  magnitude  of  this  mir- 
acle by  remembering  how  the  vast  crowd  that  filled  this  hall  last 
Sabbath  impressed  you  with  the  idea  of  numbers.  It  is  easy  to 
talk  of  5,000  men,  but  when  you  see  them  sitting  in  regular 
companies  of  fifty  and  one  hundred,  you  get  an  idea  of  what  a 
vast  concom'se  of  people  means.  Think  how  much  bread  and 
fish  it  would  require  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  this  famished  mul- 
titude. Christ  fed  them  all  by  the  exercise  of  His  omnipotent 
power.  But  what  was  the  meaning  of  this  command  ?  What  a 
singular  combination  of  lavish  expenditure  and  frugal  economy  1 
"Was  it  necessary  that  He,  who  had  only  an  hour  before  exhib- 
ited His  ability  to  provide  for  thousands,  should  husband  the 
broken  morsels  remaining  after  the  bountiful  supply  ?  Or  rather, 
was  it  not  because  He  wished  to  teach  a  great  moral  lesson  in 
connection  with  this  miracle  of  beneficence  and  power  ? 

What,  then,  is  the  lesson  which  we  are  to  learn  from  this  ex- 
ample of  Divine  economy  ?  The  great  principle  which  our  Lord 
intended  to  inculcate,  is  contained  in  the  following  proposition, 
That  which  is  valuable  as  a  whole,  is  valuable  in  its  minutest 
parts. 

We  see  the  principle  illustrated  in  Nature,  through  which 
lavish  profusion  and  boundless  expenditure  seem  to  run  riot. 
The  falling  leaves  of  autumn,  though  scattered  all  over  the  earth, 
are  not  really  lost.  They  have  their  resurrection  in  the  budding 
glories  of  the  spring-tune,  which  by  their  decay  they  have  nour- 
ished.   We  ourselves  may  be  feeding  on  the  bones  of  extinct 


182  FRAGMENTS. 

races  of  men  and  beasts  long  since  perished,  whose' ashes  fruc- 
tify the  soil  from  which  spring  our  harvests  of  golden  grain. 
The  cautious  jeweller,  who  works  in  the  precious  metals,  under- 
stands the  principle  when  he  gathers  the  minutest  filings  of  gold 
that  fall  from  his  vise,  and  treasures  them  against  the  day  when 
be  shall  fashion  them  into  a  trinket,  to  adorn  the  bosom  of 
beauty,  or  melts  them  down  into  ingots  from  which  to  shape  the 
plain  gold  ring  which  is  to  be  the  emblem  of  wedded  love. 

The  law  of  the  land  forbids  the  "  sweating  of  coin  ";  because 
although  each  piece  of  gold  or  silver  loses  a  mere  fragment  of 
value  by  the  process,  yet  the  aggregate  result  of  the  petty  pecu- 
lation proves  that  what  is  valuable  as  a  whole  is  valuable  in  its 
minutest  parts. 

Go  to  the  national  mint,  and  you  will  find  the  floor  covered 
with  a  perforated  carpet  through  which  the  minutest  particles  of 
gold-dust  gradually  filter,  and  they  are  gathered  at  the  last,  to  be 
coined  into  the  money  of  the  realm. 

Now  let  us  consider  the  principle  in  its  application  to  us. 
Wliat  are  some  of  the  things  valuable  as  a  whole,  the  minutest 
parts  of  which  we  are  prone  to  undervalue  ? 

First.  Money.  All  value  money  in  the  mass.  The  more  of 
it  men  have,  the  more  they  set  store  by  it.  But  what  is  money  ? 
It  is  in  the  last  analysis,  the  representative  of  labor.  However 
acquired  by  any  one,  whether  as  an  inheritance  from  a  father, 
or  obtained  by  industry,  every  cent  represents  one  drop  of  that 
sweat  of  the  face  by  which  man  earns  his  bread.  Money  is  the 
representative  of  toil.  It  is  not  found,  it  is  not  stumbled  upon 
by  accident  or  luck ;  it  is  wrought  out  of  the  travail  of  body, 
and  brain,  and  soul.  It  represents  the  entire  travail  of  the  hu- 
man race.  For  whether  it  exists  in  the  form  of  gold  or  silver 
coin,  or  bank-stock,  or  real  estate, — all  property  which  may  be 
represented  in  dollars  and  cents  is  the  representative  of  labor 
rewarded  by  God's  providence. 

Now  everybody  values  money.  I  need  not  exhort  you  to  a 
love  of  it.  Alas !  it  is  the  crying  sin  of  our  age,  and  of  every 
age ;  a  sin  as  old  as  the  time  of  the  Apostle,  who  said  the  love  of 
money  is  the  root  of  all  evil.     It  is  not  against  the  sin  of  covet- 


FRAGMENTS.  183 

ousness  that  I  now  lift  up  my  voice.  I  am  trying  to  impress  on 
you  the  truth  that,  much  as  you  value  money  in  the  aggregate, 
there  is  not  one  of  you  who  places  the  proper  estimate  upon  its 
smaller  parts.  Now,  as  all  you  have  comes  from  God,  He  holds 
you  responsible  for  the  manner  in  which  you  dispose  of  the 
smallest  portion  of  His  gifts.  Too  many  feel  that  as  they  have 
made  their  money  by  their  own  exertions,  they  have  a  right  to 
spend  it  as  they  please,  or  to  throw  it  away.  Not  so.  Who  gave 
the  strength  of  ai-m,  the  health,  the  skill,  the  foresight,  the  dex- 
terity, by  means  of  which  you  make  money  ?  Who  sent  favor- 
able seasons  upon  the  growing  grain  ?  Who  wafted  the  precious 
cargoes  by  prosperous  gales  ?  Who  warded  off  tempest  and  fire 
from  the  packed  warehouses  ?  God.  And  as  the  result  of  this 
fostering  care  and  Divine  superintendence,  you  have  become 
prosperous  and  comfortable  in  your  worldly  estate.  Now  what 
right  have  you,  as  God's  steward,  to  throw  away  any  portion  of 
what  He  has  committed  to  you  ?  You  say  you  do  lay  up  every 
year  for  your  family ;  you  do  give  a  portion  to  the  benevolent 
enterprises  of  the  day ;  you  do  help  support  your  church.  Ah  ! 
how  much  more  might  you  do,  if  you  would  only  save  the  pen- 
nies and  the  dimes  that  you  throw  away  in  useless  and  sometimes 
sinful  indulgences. 

The  rich  man  does  this  continually.  He  knows  that  he  ought 
to  make  some  return  to  God  for  all  His  benefits,  and  in  looking 
at  his  abundance  he  sometimes  recognizes  God  as  the  Giver,  and 
says  he  is  thankful.  Few  men  are  willing  to  bear  the  character 
80  aptly  described  by  the  sacred  poet : 

"  That  man  may  last  but  never  lives, 
Who  much  receives,  but  nothing  gives, — 
Whom  none  may  love,  whom  none  may  thank, 
Creation's  blot,  creation's  blank  ! " 

Yet  there  are  multitudes  to  whom  these  lines  apply.  They  in- 
tend to  do  something  for  God  and  for  the  good  of  men ;  but  day 
after  day  passes  away  without  the  performance  of  their  good  in- 
tentions. The  tide  of  selfish  expenditure  flows  on  without  abate- 
ment, and  the  end  of  the  year  comes  without  their  having  exe- 


184  FRAGMENTS. 

cuted  one  of  their  benevolent  intentions.  No  widow's  heart 
sings  for  joy  at  the  mention  of  their  names,  no  eye  grows  bright- 
er when  men  think  of  them ;  the  blessing  of  none  ready  to  perish 
greets  their  ears.  Oh !  had  they  only  reflected  as  they  squan- 
dered dimes  and  pennies,  that  whatever  is  valuable  as  a  whole  is 
valuable  in  its  parts, — and  gathered  up  the  fragments  from  their 
overflowing  purses,  they  might  all  the  year  through  have  been 
reaping  the  blessing  of  him  "  who  considereth  the  poor,"  whom 
"  the  Lord  will  deliver  in  time  of  trouble." 

It  is  very  agreeable  to  the  poor  to  hear  the  rich  upbraided  for 
their  want  of  liberality,  and  they  sit  by  complacently  and  enjoy 
the  castigation.  But  I  charge  the  same  sin  upon  the  poor.  Of 
how  many  acts  of  sinful  waste  are  they  also  guilty !  How  often 
do  they  plead  their  poverty  as  an  excuse  for  withholding  gifts 
which  they  might  bestow,  had  they  only  gathered  up  the  frag- 
ments of  their  limited  supply — fragments  which  have  been  cast 
into  the  ocean  of  waste  and  utter  unfruitfulness !  Ah !  this  charge 
of  waste  is  one  to  which  rich  and  poor  alike  must  plead  guilty. 

Second.  Time  is  a  gift  of  God,  for  the  use  of  which  we  are 
all  responsible. 

Life  is  the  time  in  which  to  serve  God  and  prepare  for  eter- 
nity. All  value  life  supremely.  "  All  that  a  man  hath  will  he 
give  for  his  hfe."  And  so  short  is  it,  that  men  are  constantly 
complaining  of  its  brevity.  Yet,  how  much  of  it  they  waste ! 
Such  is  the  constitution  of  things  that  it  is  broken  up  into  frag- 
ments. Few  have  the  opportunity  of  continuous  labor.  So  im- 
perious are  the  demands  of  the  body,  that  little  remains  for  doing 
the  great  work  of  life — the  preparation  of  the  soul  for  its  high 
destiny.  Take  out  of  life  the  time  for  working,  eating,  sleeping, 
and  recreation,  and  what  remains  but  the  fragments  of  scattered 
days  ?  And  these  fragments  cannot  be  gathered  together.  They 
can  onlj  be  utilized  as  they  occur.  They  are  the  merchant's  half 
hour  after  dinner,  the  mechanic's  evening  after  supper,  the 
housekeeper's  interval  of  waiting  for  the  good  man  to  come 
home,  the  mother's  respite  from  nursing  the  baby  after  it  has 
folded  its  little  hands  to  sleep.  How  favorable  these  intervals 
for  solemn  self-inspection,  for  reading  a  short  lesson  in  the  Bible, 


FRAGMENTS.  185 

for  silent  comiminion  witli  the  great  Father,  for  brief  colloquy 
with  Jesus,  for  cherishing  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit ! 
"What  opportunities  for  increasing  knowledge,  cultivating  the 
mind,  and  garnering  up  treasures  from  pages  "rich  with  the 
spoils  of  time  "  !  To  some  men  and  women  of  leisure,  time  is 
such  a  burden  that  they  tax  their  ingenuity  to  devise  methods 
for  "kiUiug  it."     Yet  they  value  Hfe  as  a  whole  supremely. 

This  strange  perversity  in  human  nature  is  aptly  illustrated  in 
the  following  story : 

A  felon,  condemned  to  death,  was  respited  on  the  following 
condition  :  He  was  confined  in  a  well-lighted  cell,  supplied  with 
well-seasoned  food,  and  doomed  to  perish  at  last  for  want  of 
water.  A  concealed  tank,  of  dimensions  unknown  to  him,  was 
placed  in  the  adjacent  cell,  and  a  faucet  from  it  passed  through 
the  wall  into  his  apartment.  It  contained  all  the  water  he  would 
ever  have  to  drink.  When  it  should  be  exhausted  he  must  die 
of  thirst.  You  may  imagine  his  feelings  when  he  learned  that 
the  length  of  his  respite  was  measured  by  this  fixed  but  unknown 
supply.  How  timidly  he  drew  the  first  cupful !  How  cautiously 
he  turned  the  spigot !  How  sparing  his  first  indulgences  !  How 
long  he  endured  the  pangs  of  thirst  before  he  would  venture  on 
a  second  draught !  But  as  day  succeeded  day,  the  stream  ran 
strong  and  full.  At  length  familiarity  banished  his  early  fears. 
He  indulges  in  more  generous  draughts.  He  goes  oftener  to 
quench  his  thirst.  He  laughs  at  his  former  timidity.  He  riots 
in  excess.  He  drinks  as  if  some  tempting  fiend  were  urging  him 
to  defy  his  doom,  when  lo !  to  his  horror  and  amazement,  the 
last  drop  trickles  from  the  spout.  Too  late  now  to  curse  the 
madness  and  delirium  of  his  reckless  and  ill-timed  profusion. 
How  priceless  now  the  wasted  draughts  of  yesterday  !  He  dies 
of  thirst  because  there  was  nothing  more  to  drink. 

Thus,  thus  it  is  with  your  life.  You  know  not  how  short  or 
how  long  it  may  be  ;  but  you  do  know  that  your  days  are  num- 
bered, and  that  every  day  brings  you  nearer  the  end.  You  can- 
not, like  this  poor  convict,  by  self-denial  husband  your  store. 
The  onward  sweep  of  your  life  is  like  the  wave  of  the  ocean  roll- 
ing without  one  moment's  pause  until  it  break  on  the  shore. 


186  FRAGMENTS. 

But  tliougli  much  of  the  past  is  lost,  all  is  not  lost ;  then 
gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  more  be  lost. 
O  Lord  !  "  so  teach  us  to  number  our  days,  that  we  may  apply 
our  hearts  unto  wisdom." 

Third.  A  third  talent  which  God  has  given  to  every  human 
being  is  Injiuence — the  power  of  affecting  the  character  and  des- 
tiny of  others.  Some  say,  and  perhaps  beheve,  that  they  ha^'e 
no  influence.  But  as  every  atom  in  our  globe  helps  to  preserve 
the  balance  of  the  solar  system  ;  as  the  mote  which  sparkles  in 
the  sunbeam  stretches  out  its  attracting  power  to  the  distant  star, 
so  every  one  is  a  centre  of  influence  that  is  streaming  forth  like 
the  viewless  magnetic  current  of  the  loadstone.  The  very  worm 
at  your  feet,  or  the  serpent  that  crosses  your  path,  produces  some 
change  in  your  conduct  or  purpose.  And  can  it  be  that  you,  wnth 
the  power  of  speech  and  "  discourse  of  reason,"  are  a  mere  cipher 
in  the  jostling  crowd  that  hear  your  words  and  see  your  actions  ? 
Let  no  one  say  that  he  is  so  insignificant  as  to  be  powerless  to  in- 
fluence the  character  and  destiny  of  others.  And  what  makes  the 
responsibility  so  solemn  is  that  our  involuntary  influence  is  often 
more  potent  than  our  conscious  efforts  to  mould  others  to  our 
will.  One  look  of  mild  reproach  drove  Peter  to  penitence  and 
tears.  A  tone  of  sympathy  has  often  cheered  a  heart  bowed 
down  with  grief.  A  word  spoken  in  season  has  served  to  arrest 
the  mad  career  of  one  hastening  to  ruin.  A  single  smile  has 
been  to  a  darkened  heart  like  a  bar  of  sunshine  in  a  closed  room. 
A  single  wanton  leer  has  lured  to  crime  and  shame.  A  single 
idle  word  or  irreverent  jest  may  be  the  seed  of  a  harvest  of  sin 
and  blasphemy.  You  cannot  divest  yourself  of  an  immortality 
of  influence.  Like  the  fabled  shirt  of  Nessus,  it  cleaves  to  you 
with  the  tenacity  of  your  being.  You  may  take  the  wings  of  the 
morning  and  fly  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  sea,  yet  you  will 
leave  your  footprints  on  the  shore.  You  may  sail  out  upon  a 
shoreless  ocean,  yet  you  will  leave  a  wake  behind  you  that  will 
Burely  be  followed  by  many  a  pursuing  bark. 

Observe,  I  am  not  speaking  of  your  direct,  but  of  your  indirect 
and  involuntary  influence  upon  your  fellows.  How  few  regard 
the  isolated  impulses  they  impart  to  others  1    How  few  are  so 


FRAGMENTS.  1^7 

circumspect  as  to  trivial  actions  and  unguarded  words,  as  to  make 
them  distil  like  dews  brushed  from  the  wings  of  angels  as  tliey 
pass  !     Oh  !  gather  up  these  fragments,  that  nothing  be  lost. 

There  is  one  class  of  ray  hearers  to  whom  I  now  make  special 
appeal.  I  refer  to  you  women  who  are  here  to-day.  As  a  gen- 
eral fact  to  which  there  are  rare  exceptions,  the  influence  of 
woman  is  Hmited  to  that  circle  in  which  she  is  confined  alike  by 
the  laws  of  JSTature  and  the  "Word  of  God.  The  oflice  of  wife 
and  mother,  to  which  God  lias  ordained  her,  is  more  potential  for 
good  or  evil  than  any  other  she  may  aspire  to  fill,  through  a  per- 
verted ambition  or  mistaken  sense  of  duty.  In  rare  emergencies, 
when  "  men  have  ceased,"  God  has  raised  up  a  Deborah  to  save 
His  people,  or  a  Joan  of  Arc  to  revive  the  sinking  sjjirits  of  de- 
sponding patriots,  and  inspire  heroes  with  new-born  enthusiasm  ; 
but  to  the  vast  majority  God  has  dedicated  the  home  and  the  fire- 
side as  their  appropriate  sphere.  And  by  leading  a  true  and 
beautiful  life,  she  can  refine,  elevate,  and  spirituahze  all  within 
her  reach,  so  that  she  can  do  more  to  regenerate  the  world  than 
all  the  reformers  that  ever  agitated,  or  the  statesmen  that  ever 
legislated.  To  her,  God  has  given  the  work  of  training  and 
moulding  immortal  spirits  at  the  very  dawn  of  their  being.  And 
this  she  does,  not  by  formal  precept  or  didactic  lesson,  but  by  her 
silent  example  and  the  outgoing  contagion  of  her  inner  life. 
They  see  her  looks,  hear  her  vehement  expression  of  passion,  note 
the  undisguised  gush  of  feeling,  thrill  in  sympathy  with  her 
bursts  of  emotion,  glow  with  her  joy,  and  tremble  with  her  fear. 
She  can  cause  flowers  of  truth,  beauty,  and  spirituality  to  spring 
up  in  her  footsteps,  till  the  earth  smiles  with  a  celestial  loveliness ; 
or  she  can  transform  it  into  an  arid  waste  covered  with  the  blight 
of  all  evil  passion  and  swept  by  the  bitter  blast  of  everlasting 
death.  Is  this  a  trivial  mission  ?  Has  she  no  worthy  work  to 
do  ?  Is  the  sphere  God  has  given  her  so  narrow  that  she  must 
step  outside  of  it  to  intrude  upon  the  hustings,  the  platform,  or 
the  pulpit  ?  Like  the  chaste  Diana  she  may  be  hidden  behind 
the  veil  of  clouds,  but  even  then  her  sway  will  be  as  imperial  and 
resistless  as  the  lunar  reign  in  the  world  of  waters.  Some  one 
has  said,  "  Let  me  write  the  ballads  of  a  nation,  and  anybody  may 


188  FRAGMENTS. 

write  their  laws."  I  say,  let  me  train  the  young  women  of  this 
nation,  and  I  shall  sit  upon  a  throne  of  power  that  will  eclipse 
the  empire  of  Sesostris,  of  Alexander,  or  of  Caesar.  I  call  upon 
you,  mothers,  and  you,  young  women,  who  one  day  will  sit  as 
queens  in  the  empire  of  your  home,  not  only  to  use  your  more 
potent  energies  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  society,  hut 
to  "  gather  up  the  fragments  that  remain,  that  nothing  be  lost." 

And  may  God  give  to  all  grace  so  to  use  their  money,  their 
time,  and  their  influence,  that  at  the  last,  when  the  awards  of 
eternity  shall  be  made,  each  of  you  may  hear  the  applauding 
word,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been 
faithful  over  a  few  things ;  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many 
things  ;  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord." 


XVII. 

THE  GLOKY  OF  GOD. 

"  Whether  therefore  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  all  to  the 
glory  of  God." — 1  Cor.  x.  31. 

The  doctrine  which  underlies  this  text  is  that  the  manifesta- 
tion of  the  Divine  glory  is  the  end  of  creation. 

Keep  in  mind  the  distinction  between  God's  essential  and  His 
manifested  excellence.  In  His  essential  glory  there  can  be  no 
increase  or  diminution.  But  it  is  not  at  all  inconsistent  with  His 
immutability  that  His  manifested  glory  should  be  every  day 
growing  more  splendid  and  more  refulgent. 

I.  Now,  the  Bible  doctrine  is  that  the  ultimate  end  which  God 
had  in  the  creation  of  the  universe  was  the  display  of  His  mani- 
fested glory.  The  proofs  of  this  proposition  are  innumerable  and 
overwhelming. 

It  is  a  necessary  deduction  from  the  conception  of  the  God  as 
Absolute.  If  absolute,  He  must  be  the  sole  end  of  all  His  acts  ; 
if  absolute,  He  is  self-determined.  Every  motive  which  quickens 
His  activity  must  originate  in  His  self-sufficient  pleasure. 

It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  God  could  seek  any  other  than 
the  highest  end  in  the  creation  of  man.  But  the  highest  con- 
ceivable end  is  the  glory  of  the  infinite  and  absolute  Being.  We 
may  conceive  of  many  subordinate  ends  that  He  may  have  had 
in  view,  but  we  can  conceive  of  no  supreme  end  short  of  Him- 
self, without  derogating  from  His  perfect  excellence.  Since  God 
is  the  greatest  being  in  the  universe,  since  in  comparison  with 
Him  heaven,  earth,  angels,  and  men  are  as  a  drop  to  the  bucket 
or  as  a  bubble  to  the  ocean,  the  manifestation  of  His  excellence 

(189) 


190  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

and  the  gratification  of  His  infinite  goodness  must  be  for  Him 
the  highest  motive  for  all  His  works.  The  glorj  of  the  infinite 
God  deserves  from  Him  the  highest  regard.  "  It  became  Him  " 
to  prefer  this  to  all  other  ends,  as  really  as  it  becomes  Him  to 
prefer  an  archangel  to  a  butterfly.  He  did  not  create  this  world 
simply  or  chiefly  to  gratify  His  benevolence  by  conferring  hap- 
piness on  the  creatures  of  His  hand  ;  but  the  chief  end  of  all  this 
expenditure  of  power  and  wisdom  was  that  His  power,  v/isdom, 
holiness,  justice,  goodness,  and  truth  might,  as  it  were,  shine 
upon  one  mirror,  and  be  reflected  back  to  Himself  and  blaze  out 
upon  the  eyes  of  an  intelligent,  admiring  universe. 

That  the  glory  of  God  is  the  end  of  creation,  is  proved  further 
by  the  fact  that  this  is  the  end  which  the  course  of  His  provi- 
dence is  actually  accomplishing — the  end  toward  which  all  things 
are  irresistibly  tending. 

Look  back  through  the  centuries,  and  you  will  see  that  every 
successive  cycle  has  evolved  some  new  display  of  the  Divine 
glory.  You  read  of  nations  rising  and  falling,  of  empires  grow- 
ing and  decaying,  yet  in  their  rise  or  fall,  their  growth  or  decay, 
disclosing  His  power  and  will  as  the  moving  force  in  their 
varying  fortunes  and  shifting  destinies.  Behind  the  great 
panorama  of  history  He  Himself  stands  concealed  ;  and  from 
one  generation  to  another  He  veils  His  far-reaching  designs; 
but  by  him  who  will  with  a  reverent  spirit  study  the  march 
of  events  through  the  ages,  the  hand  of  God  will  be  discerned, 
"  working  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  His  own  will,  whereby 
for  His  own  glory  He  hath  foreordained  whatsoever  cometh 
to  pass." 

The  whole  career  of  the  Church  from  the  calling  of  Abra- 
ham, through  all  itr?  vicissitudes  down  to  this  moment,  has 
been  an  unbroken  exhibition  of  some  one  or  other  of  the  Divine 
attributes.  All  the  great  tragedies  of  Divine  retribution — such 
as  the  Flood  ;  the  destruction  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  ;  the 
overthrow  of  Pharaoh  and  his  host ;  the  extermination  of  the 
idolatrous  nations  of  Canaan  ;  the  demolition  of  Babylon  and 
Tyre  ;  the  desolation  of  the  Holy  City ;  and  the  decline  and  fall 
of  empires,  of  which  we  read  in  secular  history — are  disclosures 


THE  GLORY  OF  GOD.  191 

of  the  attributes  of  God's  justice — a  partial  manifestation  of  His 
glory,  it  is  true,  nevertheless  real  flashes  from  the  Godhead 
gleaming  out  over  the  tide  of  time. 

Or,  descend  from  this  high  point  of  view  and  consider  the  his- 
,  tory  of  the  individual  men  and  women  whose  names  have  sur- 
vived the  wrecks  of  time,  and  you  will  see  that  the  Divine  glory 
has  in  some  measure  been  enhanced,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
by  their  lives  or  by  their  deaths.  For  in  the  moral  world  men 
may  either  become  saints  or  fiends  ;  but  whether  saint  or  fiend, 
whether  blessing  or  cursing,  whether  loving  or  hating  God,  they 
either  give  praise  or  occasion  for  praise.  For  "  He  maketh  even 
the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  Him." 

The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  the  realm  of  human  thought. 
Every  step  of  progress  in  civilization  and  knowledge,  every  ad- 
vance in  the  arts,  every  utilization  of  the  forces  of  nature  is  an 
occasion  of  "  glory  to  God  who  hath  given  such  power  unto 
men."  Every  true  science  is,  in  fact,  a  psalm  of  praise.  Geology 
in  curious  research  rewriting  the  history  of  our  globe,  and  fill- 
ing up  the  details  of  that  chasm  which  the  inspired  penman  had 
left  between  that  elder  beginning,  in  which  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  and  that  morning  and  evening  of  the  day 
on  which  man  became  a  living  soul ;  Astronomy  resolving  the 
problems  of  the  skies,  and,  as  it  were,  summoning  the  "  morning 
stars  to  sing  again  together  " — all  arts  and  all  the  sciences  gather 
together  to  fling  their  many  crowns  at  the  foot  of  Him  who  is 
"  God  over  all,  blessed  forever." 

Thus  reasoning  from  the  conception  of  God,  from  the  course 
of  His  providence,  and  from  what  our  own  eyes  see  around  us, 
we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  His  own  glory  was  the  end 
He  sought  in  the  creation  of  the  universe. 

But  the  decisive  argument  which  really  settles  the  question,  is 
drawn  from  the  Bible  itself.  We  find  in  the  book  of  Revela- 
tion the  same  doctrine  that  we  have  been  reading  in  the  books  of 
Nature  and  Providence.  The  Scriptures  reiterate  the  doctrine  in 
various  forms. 

It  is  said  of  the  universe  as  a  whole.  Thus,  "of  Ilim,  and 
through  Him,  and  to  Him  are  all  things."     "  For  Thy  pleasure 


192  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

tliej  are  and  were  created."  "  All  things  were  created  by  Him 
and  for  Him."  "The  Lord  hath  made  all  things  for  Him- 
self." 

The  glory  of  God  is  declared  to  have  been  the  final  cause  of 
the  work  of  redemption.  It  is  true  that  the  Scriptures  give 
prominence  to  the  doctrine  that  the  work  of  redemption  origina- 
ted in  the  everlasting  love  of  God  for  the  world.  Such  passages 
as  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  might  not  perish,"  etc.,  and 
many  others  of  like  import,  teach  that  God  had  regard  to  the 
happiness  of  His  people  in  devising  and  executing  the  work  of 
redemption.  But  who  does  not  see  that  the  expression  of  His 
infinite  love  to  men  in  the  gift  of  His  Son,  the  gratification  of 
His  yearnings  to  His  fallen  creatures  in  their  rescue  from  perdi- 
tion, and,  above  all,  the  illustration  of  His  mercy,  which  could 
not  otherwise  have  been  displayed  to  the  universe,  constitute  im- 
portant elements  of  the  glory  which  accrues  to  God  in  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  Hence,  on  that  illustrious  night  which  preceded 
the  day  of  the  world's  redemption,  angels,  when  they  proclaimed 
it,  sang,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest."  Christ,  when  about  to 
achieve  and  consummate  it,  prayed,  "  Father,  glorify  Thy  name." 
Believers  are  said  by  the  Apostle  to  be  "  predestinated  to  the 
adoption  of  children  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace." 
The  graces,  the  joys,  and  the  hopes  of  believers  are  declared  to 
be  produced  in  them,  in  order  "  to  make  known  the  riches  of 
His  glory."  Tlie  fruits  of  righteousness  are  wrought  in  them 
"  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the  glory  and  praise  of  God."  All  the  myr- 
iads of  redeemed  saints  are  saved,  as  the  Apostle  says,  "  that  He 
might  make  known  the  riches  of  His  glory  in  the  vessels  of 
mercy  which  He  had  afore  prepared  unto  glory."  And  the 
theme  of  triumphant  song  which  shall  ever  gush  from  the  choirs 
of  the  saints  in  heaven,  will  be,  "  Unto  Him  be  glory." 

The  glory  of  God  is  said  to  have  been  the  end  for  which  par- 
ticular providential  events  were  decreed  and  accomplished. 

For  example,  the  choice  of  the  Israelites  as  a  peculiar  people 
was  tliat  they  might  be  to  Him  "  for  a  name,  and  a  praise,  and  a 
glory  "  among  the  nations.     For  this  end  were  all  His  dealings 


THE  GLORY  OF  GOD.  193 

with  His  chosen  people,  that  He  might  "  be  glorified  in  His  ser- 
vant Israel." 

Paul  declares  that  it  was  for  this  cause  he  was  commissioned 
to  preach  the  Gospel  among  the  Gentiles ;  "  to  the  intent  that 
now  unto  principalities  and  powers  in  heavenly  places  might  be 
made  known  by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 

There  is  an  emphasis  in  the  inquiry  of  Joshua  that  sinks  deep 
into  the  heart  of  every  godly  man,  "  O  Lord,  when  Israel  turneth 
their  backs  before  their  enemies,  and  the  Canaanites  cut  off  our 
name  from  the  earth,  what  wilt  Thou  do  unto  Thy  great  name  \ " 
And  there  is  deep  doctrinal  significance  in  the  prayer  of  Jere- 
miah, when,  pleading  for  his  backslidden  countrymen,  he  says, 
"  Do  not  abhor  us ;  for  Thy  name's  sake,  do  not  disgrace  the 
throne  of  Thy  glory." 

Now  a  very  specious  objection  is  sometimes  urged  against  this 
doctrine,  that  it  exhibits  God  in  the  light  of  a  purely  selfish 
being,  controlled  by  a  motive  unworthy  of  Him.  But  in  the 
first  place,  if  we  can  form  a  conception  of  no  higher  end  in  the 
universe,  how  can  it  be  unworthy  of  God  to  seek  this  end? 
Would  it  not  be  unworthy  of  God  to  seek  any  other  as  the  chief 
end  of  His  working  ? 

In  the  second  place,  the  objection  is  based  on  the  assumption, 
that  what  it  may  be  wrong  for  us  to  do  or  desire,  would  be 
wrong  in  God,  which  is  practically  dragging  God  down  to  a  level 
with  man,  making  Him  such  a  one  as  ourselves.  A  creature  is 
nothing  compared  with  God,  and  therefore  for  a  creature  to  seek 
his  own  glory  is  to  disregard  God's  glory.  But  to  whom  is  God 
beholden  ?  Whose  glory  but  His  own  can  He  seek  ?  Since  He 
is  Himself  the  greatest  and  most  glorious  of  all  beings.  He  is  the 
only  end  worthy  for  Himself  to  seek. 

And  in  the  third  place,  in  reply  to  this  objection,  it  may  be 
said  that  it  is  only  by  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine  glory  that 
the  highest  happiness  of  the  universe  can  be  secured.  The  glory 
of  God  and  the  good  of  the  universe  cannot  be  separated.  When 
the  glorious  Being  whose  name  is  Love,  acts  for  His  own  glory, 
He  acts  for  the  good  of  His  creatures.  Thus  briefly  do  I  dispose 
of  this  objection. 


194  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

II.  I  come  now  to  the  second  great  lesson  of  tlie  text,  viz. : 
That  every  man  is  bound  by  the  will  of  God  to  select  the  pro- 
motion of  His  glory  as  the  governing  motive  of  his  hfe.  This  is 
the  motive  which  God  demands  shall  control  all  rational  creatures 
in  all  their  actions — in  the  choice  of  a  profession  or  vocation,  in 
the  pursuit  of  knowledge,  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth — in  short, 
in  the  whole  conduct  of  life. 

Just  here  let  me  define  what  I  mean  by  a  governing  motive. 
A  governing  motive  is  one  which,  while  it  does  not  exclude  sub- 
ordinate moti/es,  and  which,  while  it  may  be  temporarily  sunk 
in  consciousness,  nevertheless  does  exclude  all  other  motives 
inconsistent  with  itself,  or  motives  which  would  frustrate  its 
operation.  When,  therefore,  I  say  that  the  glory  of  God  should 
be  the  governing  motive  of  our  conduct,  I  mean  that  the  desire 
for  its  promotion  and  enhancement  should  be  the  chief  principle 
of  action,  that  it  should  pervade  and  leaven  all  the  rest,  modify 
them,  conform  them  to  itself,  tinge  them  with  its  own  hue,  resist 
and  expel  all  that  are  inconsistent  with  itself ;  just  as  the  majes- 
tic Mississippi  rolling  on  to  the  Gulf  receives  all  its  tributaries 
into  its  bosom,  hurries  their  waters  on  with  resistless  sweep, 
tinges  them  with  its  own  color,  and,  though  temporarily  diverted 
from  its  channel  and  sometimes  whirled  in  vast  eddies  alonsc  the 
shore,  and  sometimes  impeded  by  winds  and  reversing  storms, 
still  moves  onward  and  down  to  the  great  meeting  of  the  waters. 

Now  the  question  recurs.  Why  are  you  bound  to  select  the  glory 
of  God  as  the  governing  motive  of  your  life  ? 

I  answer : 

1.  Because  God  is  the  greatest  being  in  the  universe.  This  by 
itself  would  be  sufficient  reason  to  our  minds,  if  our  affections 
were  not  polluted  by  sin.  But  it  accords  with  our  moral  judg- 
ment of  what  is  right.  It  is  an  instinct  of  our  natures  to  ac- 
knowledge that  a  being  superior  to  ourselves  has  a  claim  upon 
us  simply  on  account  of  superiority.  If  we  could  realize  the 
greatness  and  majesty  of  God,  we  should  feel  it  to  be  as  really  a 
law  of  our  reason  to  render  Him  glory,  as  we  feel  it  to  be  a  moral 
obligation  to  love  what  is  lovely,  or  an  sesthetical  necessity  to  ad- 
mire the  beautiful. 


THE  GLORY  OF  GOD.  196 

We  know,  too,  that  it  is  our  duty,  because  angels  and  all  holy 
beings  joyfully  recognize  this  as  their  first  and  most  imperative 
duty.  They  spend  day  and  night  praising  Him,  saying,  "  Holy, 
holy,  holy.  Lord  God  Almighty,  which  was,  and  is,  and  is  to 
come.  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  receive  glory,  and  honor, 
and  power ;  for  Thou  hast  created  all  things,  and  for  Thy 
pleasure  they  are  and  were  created." 

Now  while  all  holy  beings  select  the  glory  of  God  as  their 
supreme  end,  shall  man,  the  pigmy  insect  of  a  moment,  turn  his 
back  on  God,  and  thus  say  he  would  rather  glorify  himself? 
When  we  contemplate  such  a  picture  our  feeling  of  resentment 
is  swallowed  up  in  contempt  for  the  littleness  and  meanness  of 
the  creature  himself.  Yet  this  was  the  essence  of  human  apos- 
tasy, which  was  a  falling  out  of  God  into  man's  little  self.  It 
was  the  "  loving  and  serving  the  creature  more  than  the  Creator." 

Now  while  most  men  are  supremely  selfish,  yet  we  meet  occa- 
sionally a  few  choice  spirits,  inspired  with  nobler  impulses — men 
who  do  live  out  of  themselves — the  noble  men  of  nature, 
"  wrought  within  a  finer  mould,  and  tempered  with  a  purer 
flame";  but  alas!  though  so  generous  in  their  sympathies,  so 
elevated  in  character,  one  thing  is  wanting — they  are  not  re- 
ligious ;  and  comparing  them  with  Christians  whose  opportuni- 
ties for  generous  culture  and  elevated  social  intercourse  have 
been  very  limited,  you  ask,  "  Can  it  be  that  these  narrow  Chris- 
tians are  more  fully  discharging  their  duties  to  God  than  those 
whole-souled  men  you  have  just  described  ? "  Yes,  it  is  even  so. 
For  those  elevated  and  noble  men  (who  does  not  love  them  ?) 
might  be  all  that  they  are,  and  do  all  that  they  do,  even  if  there 
were  no  God.  God  is  not  in  all,  nor  in  any  of  their  thoughts. 
They  do  nothing  with  a  view  to  His  glory ;  yet  they,  as  much  as 
any,  are  bound  to  "  glorify  God  in  their  bodies  and  sph'its  which 
are  His." 

2.  This  general  obligation  to  glorify  God  arising  out  of  His 
supreme  excellence  and  grandeur  is  enhanced  by  the  relations 
you  sustain  to  Him.  {a)  You  are  His  creatures.  "  He  hath 
made  us,  and  not  we  ourselves";  therefore,  says  the  Psalmist, 
"let  us  fall  down  and  worship  before  the  Lord  our  Maker." 


196  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

(5)  He  is  your  preserver.  He  keeps  your  souls  alive.  "  In  Him 
we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being."  If  for  one  instant  He 
should  turn  away  from  you,  you  would  sink  and  die,  and  to- 
morrow would  be  the  tenants  of  the  grave,  (c)  Then  again,  you 
are  the  recipients  of  constant  blessings  from  His  hands.  He 
maintains  in  you  the  light  of  reason.  He  furnishes  the  air  you 
breathe,  the  light  by  which  you  see,  the  food  that  nourishes,  the 
water  that  refreshes,  and  the  raiment  that  warms  you.  He  spares 
the  friends  who  cherish  and  comfort  you,  and  the  wife  and  chil- 
dren who  make  your  home  an  earthly  paradise.  "  It  is  of  the 
Lord's  mercies  that  we  are  not 'consumed,  because  His  compas- 
Bions  fail  not."  Now,  how  base  it  is  to  live  on  God's  bounty,  and 
yet  despise  the  claims  of  the  Divine  glory  upon  you !  How 
mean  it  is  to  presume  upon  His  forbearance,  because  the  bread  is 
given  and  the  water  sure !  How  strange  the  complacency  of 
those  who  can  "  smile  and  smile,"  and  yet  be  guilty  of  such  in- 
gratitude to  the  "Giver  of  every  good  and  perfect  gift!" 
{d)  But  all  these  blessings,  great  as  they  are,  are  obscured  in  the 
view  of  redemption,  just  as  the  stars  pale  before  the  glories  of 
the  rising  sun.  Eedemption !  Eedemption !  is  far  more  than 
all  else  besides.  For  although  God  is  the  greatest  and  best  of  all 
beings  in  the  universe,  and  on  this  account  worthy  of  undivided 
homage,  man  disallowed  His  rightful  claims  upon  his  obedience, 
love,  and  worship.  Although  He  made  man,  and  preserves  and 
blesses  him  every  day,  he  has  fallen  into  an  abyss  of  sin  so  deep 
that  he  could  never  hope  to  regain  his  footing  on  the  height 
from  which  he  fell ;  although  God  created  him  that  he  might 
"glorify  God  and  enjoy  Him  forever";  although  He  stamped 
His  own  image  upon  him  that  he  might  always  bear  in  himself 
a  symbol  of  the  Divine  glory  to  remind  him  of  the  end  for  which 
he  was  created ;  in  spite  of  this,  "  he  has  sinned  and  come  short 
of  the  glory  of  God  ";  and  here  on  this  earth,  where  God  had  a 
right  to  be  most  honored,  has  He  been  most  ^/«honored  :  and  for 
four  thousand  years  generation  after  generation  have  persisted  in 
dishonoring  His  name  and  violating  His  law.  And  He  has  borne 
with  it  all,  and  forborne  to  glorify  His  justice  in  the  quick  de- 
struction of  the  entire  race. 


THE  GLORY  OF  GOD.  IQljf 

Now  why  ?  Why  this  wonderful  forbearance  and  long-suffer- 
ing of  our  God  ?  Here  is  the  explanation.  It  was  in  order  that 
here  on  the  greatest  scene  of  His  dishonor,  here  on  this  earth, 
where  man  had  sought  to  dim  the  splendor  of  His  glory,  He 
might  be  more  conspicuously  glorified  in  the  salvation  of  man, 
"  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace."  And  this  office  of 
glorifying  Him  He  committed  to  His  dear  Son.  Hence,  as  the 
work  of  man's  redemption  was  about  to  be  consummated,  Christ 
claims  that  He  has  fully  discharged  His  office ;  "  I  have  glorified 
Thee  on  earth,  I  have  finished  the  work  which  Thou  gavest  me 
to  do." 

And  thus,  "  It  was  on  the  very  spot  where  man  was  most  dis- 
honoring God  that  man's  representative  was  most  glorifying 
Him.  Where  man  was  exhibiting  the  most  appalling  wicked- 
ness, there  man's  surety  and  substitute  was  giving  the  most  signal 
display  of  God's  mercy ;  where  man,  breaking  loose  from  all  re- 
straint, was  abandoning  himself  to  open  rebellion  and  to  defiance 
of  God's  law,  there  his  atonement  was  becoming  '  obedient  even 
unto  death ';  where  the  wildest  passions  that  ever  stirred  the  hu- 
man breast  were  raging  uncontrolled,  there,  in  our  name  and  nature, 
was  One  giving  the  most  moving  display  of  a  tenderness  that 
could  not  be  ruffled,  and  of  a  love  that  could  not  be  quenched." 
"  Where  sin  abounded,  there  did  grace  much  more  abound." 

Christ,  our  redeemer  and  representative,  is  hfted  high  upon  a 
cross,  that  He  might  become  a  spectacle  ;  and  in  the  view  of  all 
men,  in  the  view  of  principalities  and  powers  and  the  wondering 
angehc  hosts,  and  in  view  of  God  the  Father  and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost,  glorify  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  wherein 
He  had  been  most  dishonored.  Thus,  created  for  His  glory,  we 
sinned  against  His  glory,  and  were  lying  under  condemnation  for 
His  glory,  and  now  we  are  redeemed  for  His  glory,  that  we 
might  be  "  to  the  praise  of  the  glory  of  His  grace."  Oh,  what 
tongue  can  body  forth  in  fit  language  the  glory  of  this,  the 
grandest  display  of  the  Divine  character.  We  are  now  no 
longer  our  own,  for  we  are  bought,  bought  back,  bought  back 
with  a  price,  in  order  that  we  may  glorify  God  with  our  re- 
deemed bodies  and  redeemed  spirits, "  which  are  His."   No  wonder 


198  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

that  in  a  burst  of  sacred  enthusiasm  and  holy  power,  the  devout 
Heber  should  exclaim : 

"Salvation!    Oh!  salvation! 
The  joyful  sound  proclaim, 
Till  earth's  remotest  nation 
Has  learned  Messiah's  name." 

No  wonder  that,  despairing  to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  of  salva- 
tion fast  enough  to  reach  the  perishing  myriads  for  whom  it  was 
provided,  and  impatient  to  make  known  "  what  is  the  riches  of 
the  glory  of  this  mystery  which  hath  been  hid  from  ages  and 
generations,"  he  should  apostrophize  the  unconscious  elements 
themselves  and  cry  out : 

"  Waft,  waft,  ye  winds,  the  story, 
And  you,  ye  waters,  roll, 
Till,  like  a  sea  of  glory. 
It  spreads  from  pole  to  pole." 

And  no  wonder  that  the  everlasting  song  of  the  redeemed  before 
the  eternal  throne  shall  be,  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed 
us  from  our  sins  in  His  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and 
priests  unto  God  and  His  Father— to  Him  be  glory  and  domin- 
ion forever  and  ever.     Amen." 

Now,  although  wicked  men  may  think  that  they  are  not  bound 
to  glorify  God  for  the  work  of  redemption,  it  will  always  seem 
right  to  all  holy  beings  that  God  should  make  the  demand  upon 
them  ;  and  in  the  event  of  their  final  rejection  of  the  great  salva- 
tion, that  He  should  glorify  Himself  in  their  damnation,  to  the 
praise  of  the  glory  of  His  righteousness  and  justice. 

But  how  strange  is  it  that  Christians  should  choose  to  do  any- 
thing else  than  hve  for  His  glory ! 

"When  I  see  those  "  who  profess  and  call  themselves  Christians" 
apparently  totally  immersed  in  the  world  and  in  the  accumula- 
tion of  money,  or  when  I  see  them  expending  immortal  energies 
in  puny  efforts  to  enhance  their  own  reputations  and  win  the  ap- 
plause of  men,  I  cannot  help  asking :  Are  these  the  men  who 
"  thus  judge  that  if  One  died  for  all,  then  all  died,  and  that  He 


THE  GLORY  OF  GOD.  199 

died  for  all,  that  they  which  live  should  not  henceforth  live  unto 
themselves,  but  unto  Him  that  died  for  them  and  rose  again  ? " 
Yet,  men  and  brethren,  1  know,  and  you  ought  to  be  told,  that 
you  are  self-deceived,  unless  you  make  God  your  chief  end. 
This  is  not  a  duty  that  simply  flows  out  of  redemption,  this  is  re- 
demption itself.  For  redemption  consists  in  our  being  bought 
back  in  order  to  the  glorifying  of  God. 

III.  And  this  leads  me  to  the  last  reason  why  you  should  select 
the  glory  of  God  as  your  chief  end,  viz, :  The  consequences  to  your- 
selves. It  is  your  highest  duty  to  be  holy.  But  to  glorify  God 
constitutes  the  highest  phase  of  moral  excellence.  This  is  the 
last,  as  it  is  the  first  step  in  spiritual  life.  It  is  the  point  at  which 
the  babe  in  Christ  feels  the  first  impulses  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
and  it  is  the  goal  toward  which  the  Seraphim  and  Cherubim  are 
ever  striving.  But  holiness  and  happiness  are  inseparable.  Hap- 
piness consists  in  fulfilling  the  end  of  our  being  and  in  abiding 
by  the  law  of  our  constitution.  And  in  glorifying  God  we  ac- 
complish the  chief  end  of  man,  and  therefore  must  enjoy  God 
forever.  We  shall  "behold  His  glory,  even  the  glory  which 
the  Son  had  with  the  Father  before  the  world  was,"  and  our 
souls  shall  be  "  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God." 

If  the  great  doctrine  which  I  have  thus  unfolded  could  become 
a  power  in  the  lives  of  men,  it  would  revolutionize  the  aspect  of 
society.  The  merchant,  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  the  artisan,  the 
student,  the  artist,  the  poet,  the  philosopher,  the  man  of  science, 
then  would  show  forth  God's  praise  in  the  vocation  of  their  lives. 

Then  all  thought,  and  all  objects  of  thought,  would  become 
"holiness  to  the  Lord."  Men  would  not  then  regard  God's 
house  as  the  only  appropriate  place  for  worship,  but  all  their 
work  would  be  worship,  and  all  the  arts  and  sciences  would  be 
liturgies  of  praise.  Then  the  telescope  of  the  astronomer,  the 
laboratory  of  the  chemist,  the  pencil  of  the  painter,  the  chisel  of 
the  sculptor,  the  pen  of  the  poet,  the  hammer  of  the  carpenter 
and  of  the  blacksmith,  would  be  dedicated  to  a  diviner  use  ;  then 
should  we  mingle  our  voices  with  the  sound  of  instruments  vocal 
under  the  touch  of  consecrated  art,  and 


200  THE  GLORY  OF  GOD. 

"  Praise  Him  with  the  psaltery  and  harp, 
Praise  Him  with  the  timbrel  and  the  dance, 
Praise  Him  with  stringed  mstruments  and  organs, 
Praise  Him  with  high-sounding  cymbals." 

Then  should  "  every  thing  that  hath  breath  praise  the  Lord." 

Then,  too,  nature  would  seem  to  all  to  have  acquired  a  new 
significance :  and  the  traveller,  as  he  stands  at  the  foot  of  Alpine 
glaciers,  or  wanders  through  green  forests,  or  gazes  on  cataracts 
that  fill  the  hills  with  hollow  thunder,  questioning  for  whom  and 
by  whom  all  these  things  were  made : 

"  God !  let  the  torrents  answer  like  the  shout  of  nations, 
And  let  the  ice  plains  echo,  God ! 
God !  sing,  ye  meadow  streams,  with  gladsome  voice  ; 
Ye  pine-groves,  with  your  soft  and  soul-like  sounds: 
And  they  too  have  a  voice,  yon  piles  of  snow, 
And  in  their  perilous  fall  shall  thunder,  God ! 
Ye  living  flowers  that  skirt  the  eternal  frost, 
Ye  wild  goats  sporting  'round  the  eagle's  nest, 
Ye  eagles,  playmates  of  the  mountain  storm ; 
Ye  lightnings,  the  dread  arrows  of  the  clouds, 
Ye  signs  and  wonders  of  the  elements. 
Utter  forth  God !  and  fill  the  hills  with  praise." 


XVIII. 

THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL. 

"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  " — Mark  viii.  36, 37. 

Values  are  variable.  What  a  man  prizes  very  biglilj  at  one 
time  maj  seem  to  bim  utterly  worthless  at  another.  Robinson 
Crusoe  on  his  desolate  island  hoards  every  grain  of  gunpowder 
saved  from  the  wreck,  while  he  despises  bags  of  gold  as  useless 
dross. 

In  making  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  any  commodity,  there 
are  certain  general  considerations  which  influence  the  judgment ; 
of  these  I  mention  three : 

1.  The  intrinsic  value  of  the  object. 

2.  Its  distance  in  time  or  place. 

3.  Our  personal  interest  in  it. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  prove  by  argument  or  illustration  that 
the  intrinsic  worth  of  an  object  must  have  a  controlling  influence 
in  our  estimate  of  its  value. 

That  distance  modifies  estimates  of  value  is  plainly  illustrated 
by  the  profligate  spendtlirift  who  mortgages  his  reversionary 
rights  in  order  to  get  from  the  wily  usurer  the  means  of  present 
enjoyment. 

Personal  interest,  too,  in  any  object  may  give  it  extraordinary 
value  in  our  eyes,  while  all  the  world  besides  regard  it  as  worth- 
less. The  lock  of  hair  cut  from  the  pale  brow  of  a  wife  or  a 
sister,  while  she  lay  in  that  cold  trance  which  severed  her  forever 
from  your  embrace,  has  for  you  a  value  which  money  cannot 
measure.     The  difficulty  of  putting  a  correct  estimate  upon  many 

(201) 


202  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL. 

objects  of  desire  is  great,  even  when  we  have  a  standard  of  com- 
parison. So  many  elements  come  into  the  calculation,  that  even 
after  careful  deliberation,  we  are  liable  to  wide  mistakes.  But 
when  we  come  to  an  estimate  of  comparative  values  in  a  case 
where  there  is  no  standard  of  comparison,  and  where  the  objects 
differ  wholly  in  kind,  the  danger  of  forming  incorrect  judgments 
is  immensely  enhanced. 

It  is  to  precisely  such  a  comparison  of  values  that  the  text  calls 
your  attention.  "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he  shall  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  his  soul  ? " 

This  question  is  addressed  to  each  one  who  hears  it.  As  if 
you  were  standing  in  the  great  mart  of  the  universe,  the  solemn 
question  is  ringing  in  your  ears,  "  What  now  will  you  take  for 
your  soul  ? "  Calculate  its  value.  Will  you  take  a  part  of  the 
world,  or,  if  not,  will  you  take  the  whole  world  ?  Or  if  there 
are  any  who  have  bartered  away  their  souls,  what  will  you  give 
in  exchange  to  buy  them  back  ?  These  are  the  questions  I  pro- 
pound for  3'ou  to  settle  this  night. 

But  as  there  is  no  standard  of  comparison  between  things  so 
di£fereut  in  kind,  as  there  is  no  coin  that  passes  current  between 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  world,  in  order  to  make  the  estimate 
aright,  we  must  go  to  first  principles  and  inquire,  What  is  the 
world  ?  and  what  is  it  worth  ?  What  is  the  soul  ?  and  what  is  it 
worth  ?    And  then  we  must  strike  the  balance  between  them. 

I.  The  World  /  What  a  comprehensive  term  !  designating, 
as  it  does,  everything  that  ministers  to  the  intellectual  or  sensual 
appetites  !  The  world  !  What  a  splendid  array  of  dazzling  ob- 
jects is  suggested  by  this  single  word  !  Wealth.,  fame^  pleasure^ 
power !  Wealth,  with  its  long  train  of  glittering  attendants ; 
fame,  whose  temple  with  gilded  dome  and  crystal  walls  blazes  in 
the  delusive  glare  that  shines  on  all  things  this  side  of  eternity ; 
power,  with  its  magic  rod  of  empire,  before  which  thousands 
kneel  in  servile  homage ;  pleasure,  the  very  mention  of  whose 
name  awakes  a  thousand  echoes  from  the  halls  of  mirth,  recalls 
the  song  of  beauty,  the  laugh  of  youth,  the  rhythm  of  the  dance ; 


THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL.  203 

and,  to  some  of  you,  the  noise  of  the  midnight  revel  or  the  sup- 
pressed whispers  of  darker  scenes  of  guilt  and  shame. 

Such,  under  the  comprehensive  categories  of  wealth,  fame, 
power,  and  pleasure,  is  the  world.  Whatever  ministers  to  the 
gratification  of  our  intellectual,  emotional,  or  animal  nature,  be- 
longs to  the  sphere  of  this  vast  whole. 

Now,  the  question  comes,  "  What  is  it  worth  ? "  At  once  I 
answer,  it  is  worth  a  great  deal.  It  is  worse  than  folly  to  try  to 
make  anybody  believe  that  it  is  worth  nothing.  Do  not  suppose 
that  I  am  about  to  underrate  the  world.  I  am  wilHng  to  concede 
to  it  all  that  the  most  inveterate  worldling  claims  for  it.  A 
rational  estimate  of  the  world  must  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  has  an  int^'msic  as  well  as  a  factitious  value.  Who  can  deny 
that  wealth  has  a  real  intrinsic  value  ?  It  insures  food,  clothing, 
shelter,  bodily  comfort ;  it  buys  social  position,  influence,  friends ; 
it  secures  education,  books,  pictures,  statuary,  and  all  the  works 
of  art ;  it  enables  its  possessor  to  send  ten  thousand  ministers  of 
blessing  on  errands  of  mercy,  and  thus  to  secure  for  himself  the 
blessing  of  him  who  considers  the  poor ;  nay,  it  enables  him  to 
extend  his  influence  beyond  the  natural  into  the  spiritual  world 
by  sending  forth  the  tidings  of  salvation,  "  till,  like  a  sea  of  glory, 
it  spreads  from  pole  to  pole."  In  these  and  a  thousand  other 
ways,  wealth  may  minister  to  happiness  and  thus  prove  itself  a 
real  good. 

So,  too,  let  no  one  underrate  an  honorable  fame.  A  good 
name  among  men  !  how  eagerly  sought !  how  highly  prized  !  how 
justly  lamented  when  lost !  It  has  a  real  value  in  the  happiness 
it  brings  to  its  possessor,  the  prestige  it  gives  him  in  the  world, 
the  honor  with  which  it  crowns  his  posterity,  after  he  has  gone 
beyond  the  praise  or  censure  of  mankind.  An  honoi*able  fame, 
whether  acquired  on  the  gory  battle-field,  or  in  the  debates  of 
the  council-chamber,  or  on  the  perilous  heights  of  executive 
power,  or  in  the  peaceful  walks  of  letters  or  science,  or  in  art,  or 
in  commerce,  or  in  finance, — is  a  real,  substantial  good. 

Pleasure,  too,  performs  an  important  part  in  making  up  the 
sum  total  of  human  happiness.  Solomon  tells  us  that  there  is  a 
time  to  laugh  as  well  as  a  time  to  weep  ;  and  the  fact  that  God 


204  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL. 

has  so  constituted  our  natures  that  we  are  susceptible  of  enjoy- 
ment in  social  intercourse,  in  the  chase,  in  the  excitement  of 
manlj  games,  the  free  plaj  of  bodily  vigor  revelhng  in  its  uncon- 
sciousness of  weariness  or  care,  proves  that  there  are  innocent 
recreations  and  legitimate  modes  of  relaxation  from  the  stern 
work  of  life. 

In  addition  to  all  this,  I  do  not  deny  that  in  an  estimate  of  the 
value  of  the  world,  we  must  not  forget  that  it  offers  all  its  attrac- 
tions to  its  votaries  at  the  present  time.  It  does  not  dismiss  them 
to  a  distant  future,  but  it  presents  itself  in  a  tangible  form  to  be 
enjoyed  at  once.  Now  there  is  no  principle  more  fully  endorsed 
by  human  experience  than  that  embodied  in  the  homely  proverb, 
"A  bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the  bush."  I  would  not 
have  you  lose  sight  of  this  important  admission. 

But  there  are  two  important  considerations  which  may  prevent 
your  over-estimating  the  value  of  the  world,  and  these  I  now 
present  to  you. 

First.  However  valuable  the  world  may  be  in  the  abstract,  the 
value  to  each  individual  is  limited  to  a  very  brief  period.  You 
are  all  familiar  with  the  principle  recognized  in  our  courts  that  a 
life  estate  is  worth  much  less  than  a  title  in  "  fee  simple,"  as  it  is 
called.  A  lease  for  a  limited  term  may  be  bought  for  a  much 
smaller  sum  than  an  absolute  title.  In  all  transfers  of  title,  the 
conditions  annexed  to  the  tenure  modify  the  estimate  of  value. 

Now  what  serves  to  depreciate  the  value  of  the  world,  is  that 
you  can  hold  it  as  a  life  estate,  at  the  very  best ;  that  after  thirty 
or  forty  years,  you  must  vacate  the  premises  under  a  writ  of 
ejectment.  Its  wealth,  fame,  and  power  must  be  resigned  abso- 
lutely and  forever  at  death ;  its  innocent  pleasures  must  lose  all 
their  zest,  long  before  you  reach  mature  age,  while  its  sinful 
pleasures  will  pall  even  sooner  upon  the  appetite,  and  leave  a 
sting  behind  to  render  manhood  miserable,  and  old  age  intolerable, 
for 

"  Rooted  stand,  in  manhood's  hour, 
The  weeds  of  vice  without  their  flower." 

Second.  A  second  drawback  on  the  value  of  the  world  to  each 
individual  is  his  limited  capacity  for  enjoying  it. 


THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL.  205 

The  very  idea  of  ricbes  is  the  possession  of  more  than  we  can 
possibly  use  or  enjoy.  A  mere  competency  is  not  wealth.  How- 
ever valuable,  therefore,  it  may  be  in  the  abstract,  the  mere  ^^os- 
session  of  what  we  do  not  and  cannot  use  can  confer  no  real  hap- 
,  piness.  Thus  it  is  with  the  world  and  all  it  offers.  Thus  you 
would  find  it  if  the  treasures  of  Golconda  were  poured  into  your 
lap,  if  the  plaudits  of  nations  rang  in  your  ears,  if  you  sat  upon 
the  throne  of  an  empire,  or  if  the  world  were  converted  into  a 
Mohammedan  heaven,  and  you  were  lord  and  master  of  it  all. 
Solomon  tried  all  these  things,  and  after  having  drained  the  full 
cup  to  the  bottom,  he  pronounced  it  vanity  and  emptiness. 
Satiety  was  worse  than  thirst,  because  though  full,  he  could  not 
hold  enough  to  make  him  happy. 

Here  now  we  are  prepared  to  close  our  estimate  of  the  world. 
You  see  I  have  not  tried  to  behttle  it.  I  have  conceded  to  it  a 
real,  substantial  worth,  and  I  simply  remind  you  that  our  short 
life  and  limited  capacity  for  enjoying  it  diminish  its  value  to  the 
individual  man.  Splendid,  but  transient;  immeasurably  large, 
but  powerless  to  bestow  immeasurable  bliss— write  this  down  on 
one  side  of  the  ledger,  while  we  proceed  to  sum  up  the  values  on 
the  other  side. 

II.  The  Soul!  What  is  it  worth  ?  In  the  former  case  we  had 
a  standard  of  comparison.  Here  we  have  none.  There  are  no 
balances  of  human  devising  which  will  serve  to  weigh  its  value ; 
there  is  no  formula  which  will  eliminate  the  unknown  quantity 
in  the  equation  of  its  immortal  worth.  Still,  I  do  not  despair  of 
convincing  you  that  its  value  far  exceeds  imagination  or  compre- 
hension. Our  knowledge  of  immensity  may  be  accurate  as  far 
as  it  goes,  although  we  can  never  have  an  adequate  conception  of 
the  Infinite.  There  are  depths  of  ocean  which  have  never  been 
sounded.  Still,  the  oftener  he  casts  his  lead  into  its  fathomless 
abysses,  the  more  forcibly  is  the  sailor  impressed  with  the  vast- 
ness  of  the  watery  domain. 

With  a  similar  object  in  view,  let  me  suggest  some  of  the 
thoughts  by  which  you  may  reach  the  conviction  of  the  immeas- 
urable value  of  the  Botd. 


206  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL. 

First.  The  manifest  adaptation  of  the  external  world  to  the  grati- 
fication of  man's  spiritual  natm^e  argues  in  favor  of  the  value  of 
the  soul.  The  landscape  and  the  flower  might  be  divested  of 
every  element  of  beauty,  and  yet  all  the  physical  necessities  of 
man  be  provided  for.  The  ear  is  filled  with  music  that  might 
lead  the  soul  of  silence  captive,  and  the  eye  is  ravished  with 
scenes  of  surpassing  loveliness  which  awaken  emotion  and  thrill 
the  soul  with  ecstasy.  If  these  were  all  destroyed  and  the  world 
were  converted  into  a  dull,  monotonous  workshop,  men's  bodies 
might  be  as  comfortable  as  b®fore.  Therefore,  whatever  in  ex- 
ternal nature  awakens  pleasing  emotion  or  confers  intellectual 
pleasure,  is  a  tribute  to  the  value  of  the  soul. 

Second.  The  instinctive  homage  which  all  men  pay  to  the  spirit- 
ual in  man  is  a  proof  of  its  worth.  This  reveals  itself  in  the  tend- 
ency to  incorporate  with  the  products  of  the  useful  arts,  the  ele- 
ments of  the  "  fine  "  or  ornamental  arts.  The  rude  implements 
of  the  farm,  the  tools  of  the  workshop,  the  utensils  of  domestic 
economy,  are  made  to  assume  forms  of  grace  and  beauty,  in  order 
to  delight  the  mind  while  the  hand  is  at  work.  This  is  strikingly 
exemplified  in  the  art  of  architecture.  A  tight  barn  is  just  as 
warm,  and  is  as  good  a  shelter  as  a  brown-stone  front.  The  lofty 
decorations  of  our  public  edifices  do  not  contribute  in  any  way  to 
bodily  comfort.  But  they  do  address  the  soul  in  eloquent  silence, 
and  awaken  elevated  thought  and  holy  emotion.  Thus,  even 
amidst  the  sordid  or  sensual  pursuits  of  men,  the  soul  extorts  an 
acknowledgment  of  her  supremacy  and  asserts  her  worth. 

Third.  Not  only  do  men  instinctively  acknowledge  its  value, 
but  they  consciously  allow  its  claim  to  supreme  importance. 
Every  instrumentality  for  the  education  and  cultiu*e  of  the 
mind,  every  college  and  university,  nay,  every  log  school-house 
and  every  tattered  spelling-book,  is  a  witness  for  the  soul  testi- 
fying to  the  incalculable  value  attached  by  intelligent  man 
to  the  spiritual  part  of  his  nature.  And  why  have  we  assem- 
bled here  at  this  hour  ?  Why  on  this  holy  Sabbath  has  the 
din  of  labor  been  hushed  all  over  our  broad  land,  and  why  do 
thousands  crowd  to  hear  the  Gospel  ?  Why,  but  because  they 
all,  and  we  all,  believe,  deny  it  as  many  do  in  their  practical  life, 


THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL.  207 

that  the  soul  is  the  one  great  possession  and  its  salvation  the  one 
great  concern. 

Fourth.  Again,  the  value  of  the  soul  is  evinced  in  its  power  to 
master  the  body.  The  story  of  martyrdom  furnishes  innumera- 
ble proofs  of  the  dominion  of  the  soul  over  physical  pain.  Some 
have  believed  that  miraculous  fortitude  was  given  to  the  victims 
of  ancient  persecution.  What  a  godlike  substance  the  soul  must 
be  which,  amidst  unutterable  agonies  of  the  body,  could  wreathe 
its  hps  with  a  smile  of  triumph,  and  force  the  shrivelled  tongue 
to  exclaim,  "  This  fire  is  a  bed  of  roses  to  me ! " 

Fifth.  This  leads  me  to  mention  its  crowning  glory.  The  soul 
is  immortal.  In  this  aspect,  we  have  a  standard  of  comparison 
by  which  to  measm-e  its  value.  The  world  and  all  that  is  in  it 
must  one  day  pass  away  and  be  burned  up  like  chaff.  "  The 
cloud-capped  towers,  the  gorgeous  palaces,  the  solemn  temples, 
the  great  globe  itself,  yea,  all  which  it  inherit,  shall  dissolve, 
and  like  this  insubstantial  pageant  faded,  leave  not  a  rack 
behind,"  while  the  soul  will  be  living  on  in  immortal  freshness 
and  vigor. 

Sixth.  But  the  great  argument  which  stamps  the  soul  with  the 
mark  of  infinite  worth  is  the  incontestable  fact  that,  in  order  to 
redeem  it  from  a  terrible  perdition,  the  Son  of  God  "  emptied 
Himself  "  of  the  glory  which  He  had  with  the  Father  before  the 
world  was,  and  came  into  the  world  to  die  for  sinners.  No 
words  can  intensify  the  force  of  this  argument.  Here  it  is  in  all 
its  simple  grandeur — the  one  great  miracle  of  redeeming  love. 
The  Devil  and  all  the  horrid  crew  of  hell  striving  for  six  thousand 
years  to  get  possession  of  human  souls,  and  Heaven  stooping  to 
give  them  immortal  life  by  union  with  Him,  who  only  hath 
immortality ! 

No  wonder  that  the  angels  who  worship  around  the  throne 
hang  over  the  battlements  of  the  crystal  walls,  in  breathless  sus- 
pense awaiting  the  issue  of  this  contest  between  the  Son  of  God 
and  the  powers  of  darkness.  No  wonder  that  "  there  is  joy  in 
the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  siimer  that  repenteth," 
when  every  soul  thus  saved  is  a  trophy  of  the  victory  of  the 
"  Strong  Son  of  God,  immortal  Love."     The  soul  of  man  must 


208  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL. 

be  of  priceless  value  when  it  can  enlist  the  energies  of  such  con- 
testants for  its  possession. 

Now  I  have  answered  the  question,  "  What  is  the  worth  of  the 
soul  ? "     It  is  for  you  to  say  what  you  will  tcikefor  your  soul. 

Satan,  who  is  the  loudest  bidder  in  the  great  mart  of  souls,  is 
most  skilful  in  adjusting  the  false  lights  with  which  he  illuminates 
the  gaudy  trickeries  of  the  world,  which  he  offers  as  the  price. 
The  very  nearness  of  the  objects  magnifies  their  false  attractions, 
while  it  is  only  as  with  a  telescope  that  I  can  show  you  those 
lights  of  eternity  that  illuminate  the  real  value  of  the  soul. 

If,  therefore,  with  a  weak  or  inoperative  faith  you  discern  eter- 
nal realities,  you  may  even  now  be  balancing  the  question  whether 
the  enemy  of  souls  is  not  offering  you  a  fair  price. 

Before  you  consent  to  make  the  exchange  let  me  put  the  question 
of  the  text,  with  another  emphasis,  "  What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he 
shall  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  Ms  own  soul  ? "  With  this  em- 
phasis it  is  not  a  question  of  intrinsic  values,  or  of  relative  values  in 
the  abstract.  It  is  now  a  question  in  which  your  personal  interest 
in  the  exchange  ought  to  determine  your  conduct.  It  is  not 
whether  you  will  barter  a  soul  for  the  world,  but  whether  you 
will  exchange  your  own  soul ;  whether  you  will  accept  the  splen- 
did but  transient,  the  ample  but  unsatisfying  attractions  of  earth, 
for  heaven  lost  to  you  and  hell  as  your  portion  ;  whether  for  a 
few  years  of  fitful  enjoyment  and  feverish  excitement  you  will 
forego  the  heights  of  glory  to  which  you  may  aspire,  and  at  last 
lie  down  in  everlasting  burnings. 

And  now,  if  there  are  any  here  who  have  already  made  the 
terrible  bargain,  there  is  one  more  question  in  the  text  that  merits 
their  special  attention — "  What  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for 
his  soul  ? "  That  is,  Kaving  sold  it,  how  shall  he  buy  it  back  ? 
The  mere  surrender  of  the  world  will  not  effect  the  repurchase 
of  it  now.  The  Devil  is  too  shrewd  a  trader  to  take  back  a 
mere  bauble  for  an  immortal  treasure.  What  cam,  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  his  soul  ? 

Do  you  wish  to  recede  from  the  bitter  bargain?  Do  you 
desire  to  find  the  priceless  pearl  with  which  you  may  redeem 
your  captive  spirit  ?    Come  with  me  to  the  blood-stained  cross 


THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SOUL.  209 

whereon  a  ransom  was  paid  for  a  spirit  lost  like  yonrs.  Come 
with  me  to  Him  who  led  captivity  captive,  triumphed  over  Satan, 
and  despoiled  him  of  his  prey. 

Know,  O  lost  sinner,  that  even  in  your  last  extremity,  when 
you  cannot  redeem  your  own  soul,  there  is  One  who  has  paid  a 
ransom  for  you.  Look  unto  Jesus  and  you  may  yet  be  saved. 
The  voice  of  Mercy  cries,  "  Deliver  him  from  going  down  to  the 
pit :  for  I  ha,YG/ound  a  Jiansom." 


XIX 

SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

"And  a  certain  man  drew  a  bow  at  a  venture,  and  smote  the  king  of  Israel 
between  the  joints  of  the  harness." — 1  Kings  xxii.  34. 

The  narrative  from  which  the  text  is  taken  is  a  very  striking 
one.  Ahab,  the  king  of  Israel,  to  whom  reference  is  made,  had 
been  commanded  by  God  through  His  prophet,  to  destroy  utterly 
Benhadad,  the  king  of  Syria.  After  a  bloody  battle  in  which 
Ahab  was  successful  through  direct  Divine  interposition,  and  had 
captured  Benhadad,  he  made  a  treaty  of  friendship  with  the 
Syrian  king,  instead  of  obeying  the  command  which  devoted 
him  to  utter  destruction.  A  prophet  was  sent  to  him  with  this 
awful  message :  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  Because  thou  hast  let  go 
out  of  thy  hand  a  man  whom  I  appointed  to  utter  destruction, 
therefore  thy  life  shall  go  for  his  life,  and  thy  people  for  his 
people."  The  peace  which  he  concluded  with  Benhadad  gave 
him  an  opportunity  to  repose  at  home,  and  to  devote  himself  to 
the  beautifying  and  extending  of  his  pleasure-grounds,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  his  summer  palace  at  Jezreel.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  this  summer  palace  was  a  beautiful  vineyard  of  Naboth, 
held  by  him  as  an  inalienable  inheritance  from  his  ancestors. 
This  vineyard  Ahab  desired  to  possess,  and  he  proposed  to  buy  it 
from  Naboth  at  its  full  value.  Naboth  refused  to  alienate  it 
from  his  family  on  any  terms,  and  this  made  Ahab  angry ;  and, 
like  a  spoiled  child,  he  pouted  and  went  to  bed,  refusing  to  eat 
food  or  to  see  any  one.  Jezebel,  his  wife,  who  was  made  of 
sterner  stuff,  by  an  infamous  criminal  prosecution,  sustained  by 
the  testimony  of  false  witnesses  suborned  for  the  purpose,  secures 
the  condemnation  and  execution  of  Naboth,  and  then  Ahab 
springs  up  from  his  bed  with  delight,  and  makes  haste  to  take 
(210) 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  211 

possession  of  the  property  stolen  and  stained  with  blood.  The 
blood-guiltiness  rests  on  him,  and  the  prophet  Elijah  is  command- 
ed by  God  to  go  to  Ahab  while  he  is  walking  in  Naboth's  vine- 
yard and  say  to  him :  "  Hast  thou  killed  and  also  taken  posses- 
sion ?  In  the  place  where  dogs  licked  the  blood  of  Naboth,  shall 
dogs  lick  thy  blood,  even  thine." 

Full  three  years  elapse,  and  these  events  are  almost  forgotten. 
Peace  and  prosperity  smile  upon  Ahab  and  his  kingdom.  But 
he  is  disturbed  by  the  reflection  that  Ramoth-Gilead  was  still 
forcibly  held  by  the  Syrians,  while  it  really  belonged  to  the  king- 
dom of  Israel.  He  therefore  invokes  the  aid  of  Jehoshaphat, 
king  of  Judah,  to  help  him  recover  it.  After  some  preliminary 
consultation  of  prophets,  who  are  inspired  by  lying  spirits  to  as- 
sure them  of  success  in  the  enterprise,  the  king  of  Israel  and  the 
king  of  Judah  lay  siege  to  Ramoth-Gilead.  Benhadad,  the  king 
of  Syria,  gave  his  captains  a  special  order  to  single  out  Ahab  as 
the  sole  object  of  their  attack.  He  knew  that  the  expedition  had 
originated  with  Ahab,  and  hoped  that  his  death  would  end  the 
war.  Although  Ahab  could  have  known  nothing  of  ^his  order, 
yet  he  had  a  secret  anxiety  as  to  the  issue.  Micaiah,  a  true 
prophet,  had  predicted  disaster,  and  he  well  knew  that  the 
Syrians,  his  ancient  enemy,  would  be  more  anxious  to  kill  him 
than  any  one  else.  He  therefore  requests  Jehoshaphat  to  go  into 
the  battle  clothed  in  his  own  royal  apparel,  but  told  him  that  he 
would  disguise  himself.  The  meaning  of  what  he  said  was  simply 
this :  "/  have  every  reason  to  make  myself  unrecognizable  in 
this  war ;  but  thou,  against  whom  the  Syrians  have  no  especial 
hate,  mayst  go  forward  in  thy  proper  apparel."  As  the  battle  is 
in  progress,  Jehoshaphat  is  pursued  and  is  about  to  be  slain,  when 
he  cries  out,  and  is  recognized,  and  "  the  Lord  helped  him,  and 
God  moved  them  to  depart  from  him."  For  when  they  saw  that 
he  was  not  the  king  of  Israel,  in  obedience  to  their  instructions 
they  let  him  alone.  So  perfect  was  the  disguise  of  Ahab,  that 
the  Syrians  could  not  identify  him,  and  it  seemed  as  if  he  was 
about  to  escape  their  vengeance,  and  as  if  the  word  of  the  Lord 
by  the  prophet  Micaiah  was  to  come  to  nought.  But  God,  who 
controls  all  events,  small  as  well  as  great,  nerved  the  arm  of  an 


212  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

■unknown  and  obscure  soldier  to  bend  his  bow  and  shoot  an  aim- 
less arrow  among  the  contending  hosts.  "  A  certain  man  drew  a 
bow  at  a  venture,"  and  the  arrow  directed  by  the  hand  of  God 
found  the  only  vulnerable  point  in  the  armor  of  King  Ahab.  It 
was  just  at  the  point  where  the  corselet  lapped  over  the  skirt  of 
iron  plates  that  protected  the  legs,  that  the  arrow  entered.  Had 
he  been  in  any  other  position,  the  arrow  could  not  have  found  a 
crevice  in  which  to  enter.  Had  the  armor  been  a  little  more 
carefully  adjusted,  or  had  the  corselet  been  half  an  inch  longer, 
the  arrow  would  have  glanced  harmless  through  the  chariot. 
Had  the  horse  which  drew  the  chariot  been  a  little  more  fleet, 
the  arrow  would  have  fallen  behind  the  chariot,  or  have  pierced 
some  other  less  protected  victim.  Had  the  "  certain  man  "  de- 
layed one  instant  to  draw  "  his  bow  at  a  venture,"  the  king  would 
have  escaped  that  shaft.  Had  the  king  been  dressed  in  his  own 
armor  which  fitted  him,  and  not  in  that  of  another  man  which 
did  not  protect  him  perfectly,  he  might  have  escaped.  But  you 
see,  all  these  things  had  been  arranged  by  God,  and  three  years 
before,  while  the  warm  blood  of  Naboth  was  mingling  with  the 
waters  of  the  pool  of  Samaria,  God  had  inspired  His  prophet  to 
warn  the  wicked  king  that  his  own  blood,  shed  in  his  chariot, 
should  be  washed  from  it  in  the  waters  of  that  very  pool. 

The  object  of  this  discourse  is  to  use  this  narrative  to  illustrate 
the  proposition  that  God  controls  all  events  whether  great  or 
small :  that,  in  fact,  there  is  nothing  either  great  or  small  in  His 
esteem. 

Men  are  prone  to  measure  the  importance  of  any  event  by  a 
superficial  estimate  of  its  visible  effects.  Thus,  an  earthquake,  or 
a  great  conflagration,  or  a  tornado,  is  accounted  an  event  of  such 
magnitude,  that  it  is  deemed  not  unworthy  of  the  Divine  atten- 
tion. So,  too,  the  great  revolutions  of  which  history  takes  ac- 
count, are  considered  proper  objects  for  Divine  interference  and 
control.  And  so,  too,  many  men  are  ready  to  admit  that  the 
more  striking  events  in  their  own  personal  history  are  not  be- 
neath the  Divine  notice.  Their  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  the  be- 
reavements they  sufi!er,  the  accidents  they  experience  or  their 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  213 

escapes  from  great  perils,  the  misfortunes  that  befall  them  or  the 
auspicious  circumstances  that  may  attend  their  labors — all  these 
things  they  are  very  willing  to  ascribe  to  the  Divine  superintend- 
ence ;  but  the  ordinary  events  of  e very-day  life  they  are  prone  to 
think  are  too  insignificant  in  the  eyes  of  the  great  Ruler  to  re- 
ceive from  Him  a  moment's  attention,  and  they  continually  refer 
the  occurrence  of  these  events  to  accidents  or  to  chance. 

This  is,  of  course,  not  a  philosophical  or  rational  view  of  the 
subject.  Those  who  entertain  it  have  no  consistent  theory  on 
the  subject  of  Divine  Providence.  Their  views  are  not  those 
which  we  find  stated  in  books  or  assailed  in  formal  treatises  on 
the  subject  of  Divine  Providence.  But  they  will  be  most  satis- 
factorily disposed  of  by  a  clear  statement  of  the  Scripture  doc- 
trine of  Providence,  which  stands  opposed  to  all  incorrect  views 
on  the  subject. 

The  Catechism  defines  God's  works  of  Providence  to  be  "  His 
most  holy,  wise,  and  powerful  preserving  and  governing  all  His 
creatures  and  all  their  actions":  i.  e.,  He  preserves  all  His  crea- 
tures and  governs  all  their  actions.  Two  elements,  therefore,  are 
included  in  Providence — Preservation  and  Government.  By 
^preservation  is  meant  that  all  things  out  of  God  owe  the  con- 
tinuance of  their  existence,  with  all  their  properties,  to  the  will 
of  God.  By  government  is  meant  intelligent  control,  with  a 
design  or  end  in  view.  It  is  with  this  second  element  in  Provi- 
dence that  we  are  at  present  concerned.  It  involves  the  idea  of 
"  an  end  to  be  attained  and  the  disposition  and  direction  of  means 
for  its  accomplishment."  If  God  governs  the  universe  He  has 
Eome  great  end  in  view.  This  great  final  end  includes  an  infinite 
number  of  subordinate  ends,  all  of  which  must  be  accomplished 
in  order  to  the  attainment  of  the  one  great  end  of  the  whole. 

Now  the  Scriptures  teach  that  this  providential  government 
is — 

(1.)  Universal  '  that  is,  that  it  embraces  the  whole  physical 
universe,  rational  and  irrational  creatures,  things  great  and  things 
small,  things  ordinary  and  things  extraordinary. 

(2.)  That  it  is  powerftd  /  i.  e.,  that  His  omnipotence  renders 
the  accomplishment  of  His  purposes  absolutely  certain. 


214  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

(3.)  That  it  is  wise  /  that  is,  that  the  end  He  seeks  is  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  highest  wisdom  ;  and  further,  that  the  means 
He  employs  are  the  very  best  adapted  to  the  object ;  and  that  His 
control  is  suited  to  the  nature  of  the  creatures  over  which  it  is 
exercised.  He  governs  the  material  universe  according  to  fixed 
laws  which  He  Himself  has  estabhshed ;  irrational  animals  by  the 
instincts  which  He  Himself  has  given  them  ;  and  rational  crea- 
tures in  accordance  with  their  nature. 

(4.)  That  God's  providence  is  holy  /  that  is,  there  is  nothing 
in  the  ends  proposed,  the  means  adopted,  or  the  agency  employed 
inconsistent  with  His  perfect  moral  excellence. 

This  is  the  whole  Scripture  doctrine  of  Providence.  But  I 
wish  to  confine  your  attention  to  only  one  of  these  propositions  : 
viz.,  that  the  providential  government  of  God  is  universal ;  that 
is,  extending  to  the  whole  physical  and  spiritual  universe,  crea- 
tures rational  and  irrational,  things  great  and  things  small,  things 
ordinary  and  things  extraordinary. 

1.  This  doctrine  flows  from  necessity  out  of  the  Scripture  idea 
of  God.  As  the  Scriptures  represent  God  as  infinite  in  wisdom, 
power,  and  goodness,  and  as  the  Father  of  Spirits,  if  we  could 
suppose  it  possible  that  there  was  one  spot  in  the  universe  where 
He  was  not  always  exercising  supervision  and  control,  we  should 
be  denying  His  infiniteness ;  and  if  we  should  suppose  that  there  was 
one  creature  in  the  universe,  whether  rational  or  irrational,  whether 
great  or  small,  for  whose  good  He  is  not  concerned,  we  should  be 
denying  His  infinite  goodness.  It  flows  necessarily  out  of  the 
idea  of  God  as  the  Creator  of  all  things,  great  and  small.  The 
force  of  this  argument  is  very  great.  If  God  did  not  think  it 
beneath  His  dignity  to  create  all  things,  great  and  small,  alike,  it 
certainly  cannot  be  beneath  His  dignity  to  care  for  them  all  after 
they  were  created.  Many  seem  to  think  that  the  universe  is  a 
machine  which  God  took  infinite  pains  to  construct  in  all  its 
myriad  details,  but  that  after  He  had  built  it  and  set  it  agoing, 
He  lost  all  interest  in  it  and  left  it  alone  to  work  out  its  results. 
This  idea  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the  Scripture  conception  of 
God.  When  an  artificer  makes  a  machine,  it  will  remain  in 
existence  though  he  should  die  the  next  moment ;  because  the 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  215 

material  on  which  he  works  was  ready  created  to  his  hands,  and 
he  only  gave  it  form  and  figure.  But  God  gives  the  very  heing 
as  well  as  the  form ;  and  the  very  being  of  the  thing  depends 
upon  His  preserving  influence.  "  In  Him,"  says  the  Apostle, 
"  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  ";  so  that  if  God  should 
cease  to  exist,  the  universe  would  burst  like  a  bubble,  and  vanish 
out  of  existence.  "  And  to  suppose  that  anything  is  too  great  to 
be  comprehended  in  His  control,  or  anything  so  minute  as  to 
escape  His  notice,  or  that  the  infinitude  of  the  particulars  can 
distract  His  attention,  is  to  forget  that  God  is  infinite.  God  is 
as  much  present  everywhere  and  with  everything  as  if  He  were 
only  in  one  place  and  had  but  one  object  of  attention.  The  very 
common  idea  that  it  is  incompatible  with  the  dignity  and  majesty 
of  the  Divine  Being  to  concern  Himself  about  trifles,  assumes 
that  God  is  a  limited  heing  /  and  that  because  we  can  attend  to 
only  one  thing  at  a  time,  it  must  be  so  with  God."  * 

2.  The  doctrine  flows  from  the  evidence  which  the  whole  uni- 
verse gives  of  the  operation  of  mind  in  every  part  of  it.  There 
is  everywhere  manifest  the  intelligent  adaptation  of  means  to  an 
end,  as  well  in  the  organization  of  the  animalculae  as  in  the  order 
of  the  heavenly  bodies.  It  would  be  as  unreasonable  to  assume 
that  the  organized  forms  of  the  vegetable  and  animal  world  are 
due  to  the  laws  of  nature  as  it  would  be  to  assume  that  a  printing- 
press  could  be  constructed  which  could  compose  a  poem. 

3.  The  doctrine  is  demanded  by  the  religious  nature  of  man. 
Our  sense  of  dependence,  our  instinctive  and  universal  sense  of 
responsibility,  and  the  instincts  of  our  religious  nature,  which 
demand  intercourse  with  God — all  teach  this  doctrine.  Unless 
this  doctrine  is  true,  our  whole  nature  is  a  delusion  and  an  impo- 
sition upon  us.  We  are  created  with  instincts  and  aspirations 
which  cannot  be  satisfied,  unless  this  doctrine  of  a  universal 
providence  is  the  very  truth. 

4.  This  doctrine  is  involved  in  all  the  predictions,  promises, 
and  threatenings  recorded  in  the  Bible.  God  promises  to  give 
health,  long  life,  and  prosperous  seasons ;  or  He  threatens  war, 

*  Hodge. 


216  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

famine,  drought,  and  pestilence.  Such  promises  and  threaten- 
ings  suppose  a  universal  providence,  a  control  over  all  the  crea- 
tures of  God  and  all  their  actions. 

5.  The  Scriptures  are  very  full  of  this  doctrine  stated  in  a 
variety  of  forms. 

(1.)  In  regard  to  God's  providential  agency  in  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature. 

He  guides  Arcturus  in  his  course ;  He  makes  the  sun  rise,  and 
the  grass  grow ;  He  gives  rain  from  heaven,  and  fruitful  seasons ; 
He  clothes  the  grass  of  the  field,  which  to-day  is,  and  to-morrow 
is  cast  into  the  oven ;  He  makes  the  winds  His  messengers,  and 
the  lightnings  are  His  ministering  spirits ;  earthquakes,  tempests, 
pestilences,  are  sent  and  governed  by  Him ;  events  to  us  appar- 
ently fortuitous,  as  the  flight  of  an  arrow,  the  falling  of  a  lot,  the 
number  of  the  hairs  of  our  head,  the  death  of  a  sparrow,  are  all 
controlled  by  the  ever-present  and  omnipotent  God. 

(2.)  In  all  the  animal  world. 

Job  says,  "In  His  hand  is  the  life  of  every  living  thing." 
The  Psalmist,  "  The  young  lions  roar  after  their  prey  and  seek 
their  meat  from  God."  "  They  wait  upon  Him,  and  He  giveth 
them  their  meat  in  due  season."  "  He  hears  the  young  ravens 
when  they  cry."  "  Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air !  Your  heavenly 
Father  feedeth  them."  "  He  giveth  to  all  life  and  breath  and  all 
things." 

Now  all  these  statements  are  not  merely  poetical  representa- 
tions of  the  adaptations  of  nature  to  the  necessities  of  the  animal 
creation;  but  they  teach  that  His  creatures  are  constantly  de- 
pendent on  God's  interposition  and  providential  care.  The  mul- 
titude of  the  cattle  was  assigned  as  a  reason  for  the  preservation 
of  Nineveh  from  destruction.  God  is  represented  as  remember- 
ing NoaKs  cattle  as  well  as  his  sons  (Gen.  viii.  1).  And  when 
our  Lord  put  into  the  mouth  of  His  disciples  the  petition,  "  Give 
us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  He  recognized  the  fact  that  all  living 
creatures  depend  on  the  constant  intervention  of  God  for  the 
supply  of  their  daily  wants. 

(3.)  The  Bible  teaches  that  the  providential  government  of 
God  extends  over  nations  and  communities  of  men.     "  He  doeth 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  217 

according  to  His  will  in  the  army  of  heaven  and  among  the  in- 
habitants of  the  earth.  He  removeth  kings  and  setteth  up  kings." 
"  The  Most  High  ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to 
whomsoever  He  will."  "  O  Assyrian,  the  rod  of  my  anger,  and 
the  staff  in  their  hand  is  my  indignation ;  and  I  will  send  him 
against  a  hypocritical  nation.  Howbeit  he  meaneth  not  so, 
neither  doth  his  heart  think  so ";  i.  e.,  Sennacherib,  of  whom 
He  speaks,  did  not  design  to  be  the  instrument  of  God's  justice, 
but  was  only  bent  on  the  satisfaction  of  his  own  ambition  and 
the  extension  of  his  empire.  "  The  shields  of  the  earth,"  i.  e. 
human  magistrates, "  belong  unto  God."  Who  would  have  thought 
that  the  forces  raised  by  Cyrus  against  Babylon  to  satisfy  his  own 
ambition,  should  be  a  means  to  deliver  the  Israelites  and  to  re- 
store the  worship  of  God  in  the  temple  ?  Yet  so  it  was.  God 
had  this  end  in  view,  and  Isaiah  prophesied  it  three  hundred 
years  before  Cyrus  was  born,  calling  him  by  his  name :  "  That 
eaith  of  Cyrus,  thou  art  my  shepherd,  and  shalt  perform  all  my 
pleasure,  even  saying  that  Jerusalem  shall  be  built." 

"  Shall  the  axe  boast  itself  against  him  that  heweth  therewith, 
or  shall  the  saw  magnify  itself  against  him  that  shaketh  it  ?  as 
if  the  rod  should  shake  itself  against  them  that  lift  it  up,  or  as  if 
the  staff  should  lift  up  itself  as  though  it  were  not  wood."  That 
is,  God  uses  the  nations  as  a  man  uses  a  staff  or  a  rod.  They  are 
in  His  hands,  and  He  employs  them  to  accomplish  His  purposes. 
He  breaks  them  in  pieces  as  a  potter's  vessel,  or  He  exalts  them 
to  greatness  according  to  His  good  pleasure. 

(4.)  The  providence  of  God  extends  not  only  over  nations,  but 
also  over  individuals.  The  circumstances  of  every  man's  birth, 
life,  and  death  are  ordered  by  God,  whether  we  are  born  in  a 
heathen  or  Christian  land,  in  the  Church  or  out  of  it ;  whether 
we  are  weak  or  strong,  with  many  or  with  few  talents,  rich  or 
poor ;  whether  we  are  prosperous  or  afflicted  ;  whether  we  are  to 
live  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time,  are  not  matters  determined  by 
chance  or  by  the  unintelligible  sequence  of  events,  but  by  the 
will  of  God.  "  The  Lord  killeth  and  the  Lord  maketh  alive ;  the 
Lord  maketh  poor  and  the  Lord  maketh  rich."  "  A  man's  heart 
deviseth  his  way,  but  the  Lord  directeth  his  steps."    "  Promotion 


518  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

cometli  neither  from  the  east,  nor  from  the  west,  nor  from  the 
south."  "  My  times  are  in  Thy  hands,"  i.  e.,  the  necessities  of 
my  life.  "  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  men 
for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the 
times  before  appointed"  {i.  e.,  the  turning-points  in  history), 
"  and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation." 

From  these  comprehensive  views  of  the  universal  and  minute 
Buperinteudence  of  Divine  Providence,  there  are  many  inferences 
and  many  lessons  to  be  drawn. 

(1.)  If  God  is  thus  immanent  in  the  world  and  in  us,  then  the 
most  insignificant  of  our  concerns,  and  the  most  trivial  events  of 
our  life,  are  mider  His  supervision  and  control.  And  in  this 
view  there  is  nothing  really  trivial  in  all  our  personal  history.  For 
that  which  can  engage  the  thought  and  be  ordered  by  the  supreme 
mind  and  the  supreme  power  of  the  universe,  cannot  be  a  matter 
of  no  importance.  In  our  blindness  and  in  our  ignorance  of  the 
sequences  of  things,  we  may  account  that  a  matter  insignificant 
in  itself,  which  nevertheless  may  be  fraught  with  the  most  stu- 
pendous consequences.  In  many  instances  in  which  the  veil  has 
been  raised  by  the  hand  of  God,  and  He  has  permitted  us  to  in- 
spect the  otherwise  hidden  connection  between  a  cause  and  its 
effects,  we  discern  the  fact  that  circumstances,  regarded  by  those 
who  observed  them  as  utterly  insignificant,  have  been  links  in  a 
naighty  chain  by  which  were  suspended  vast  revolutions  in  human 
history.  A  little  pebble  from  the  brook,  guided  by  the  hand  of 
God,  delivers  Israel  from  the  Philistines ;  a  dream  of  Joseph  is 
the  occasion  of  the  ultimate  settlement  of  Jacob's  family  in  Egypt, 
and  all  the  wonderful  subsequent  history  of  the  Israelites ;  Pha- 
raoh's daughter  comes  casually  to  wash  herself  in  the  river,  but  con- 
ducted by  the  secret  influence  of  God  upon  her,  in  order  that  she 
might  rescue  the  infant  Moses,  so  as  to  train  him  up  in  the  learn- 
ing of  Egypt,  that  he  might  become  the  deliverer  of  his  people ; 
the  viper  which  leaped  upon  Paul's  hand  out  of  a  bundle  of 
sticks,  was  designed  by  God  to  further  the  propagation  of  the 
Gospel ;  the  cackling  of  geese  was  used  by  God  as  a  means  for 
saving  the  Roman  capital  from  a  surprise  by  the  Gauls ;  and  as 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  219 

our  text  relates,  a  common  soldier  draws  a  bow  at  a  venture,  and 
destroys  the  life  of  a  wicked  king. 

You  cannot  tell  what  event  in  your  life  may  be  fraught  with 
consequences  of  the  most  vast  importance  to  you. 

(2.)  If  this  is  so,  how  important  to  seek  Divine  aid  and  direc- 
tion in  everything  you  do,  and  for  every  moment  of  your  hfe. 
How  can  you  afford  to  do  without  the  Divine  blessing  invoked 
upon  every  step  of  your  progress  ?  How  can  you  venture  to 
begin  the  day  without  commending  your  way  to  Him  who  will 
order  all  the  events  of  the  day,  all  of  which  will  be  more  or  less 
influential  in  determining  your  future  course,  and  in  fixing  your 
ultimate  destiny  ? 

(3.)  This  view  of  the  universal  and  minute  providential  control 
of  God  will  enable  us  to  understand  what  are  called  "  special 
providences."  There  are  no  such  things  as  special  providences^ 
if  by  this  is  meant  that  God  interferes  in  human  affairs  more 
actively  at  one  time  or  on  one  occasion  than  another,  for  the 
deliverance  of  His  people  from  impending  evil.  What  are  called 
"  special  providences "  are  only  instances  in  which  we  are  per- 
mitted to  see  more  plainly  than  at  other  times  the  immediate 
instrumentahties  by  which  our  deliverance  from  danger  or  rescue 
from  threatened  disaster  is  effected.  An  instance  in  point  is 
recorded  in  the  book  of  Esther.  On  the  very  night  before  the 
day  that  the  destruction  of  Mordecai  and  the  whole  Jewish  peo- 
ple was  to  be  accomplished,  the  king  could  not  sleep  and  com- 
manded the  records  of  the  empire  to  be  read,  and  God  had  so 
ordered  it  that  that  particular  roll  should  be  read  to  him  which 
recorded  the  story  of  Mordecai's  services  in  exposing  and  defeat- 
ing a  conspiracy  against  the  king.  This  led  to  inquiry,  and  to 
the  subsequent  reward  of  Mordecai,  and  the  deliverance  of  the 
Jews  from  extermination.  Now  this  would  be  called  a  "  special 
providence";  but  there  was  nothing  more  special  in  it  than  a 
thousand  other  providences  in  regard  to  the  Jews,  the  occasions 
of  which  were  unknown  and  therefore  unrecorded.  I  saw  not 
long  ago  an  account  of  a  citizen  of  this  county  who  was  about  to 
embark  on  a  steamboat  on  the  Mississippi ;  but  just  as  he  was 
going  aboard  of  her,  he  discovered  that  his  purse  had  been  stolen, 


220  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

and  he  was  compelled  to  return  to  his  hotel  and  wait  until  he 
could  telegraph  for  more  money  to  his  friends  at  home.  The 
steamboat  was  lost  with  all  on  board.  He,  of  course,  escaped  on 
account  of  the  loss  of  his  money,  which,  if  the  accident  had  not 
happened  to  the  boat,  he  would  have  regarded  a  great  misfortune. 
This  loss  of  his  purse  he  regarded  a  ''  special  providence  ";  but  it 
was  no  more  a  special  providence  to  him  than  the  providence 
which  kept  me  at  home  so  that  I  was  not  near  taking  passage  in 
the  boat,  and  which  kept  me  out  of  the  reach  of  pickpockets,  so 
that  I  lost  neither  money  nor  life. 

A  New  York  merchant,  not  long  ago,  whose  home  was  in  the 
country,  was  very  anxious  to  be  in  the  city  at  a  certain  hour  in 
order  to  attend  to  important  business  ;  but  it  was  necessary  for 
him  to  have  a  certain  paper  to  take  with  him.  Just  as  he  was 
about  to  start,  the  paper  which  had  been  lying  on  the  mantel 
could  be  found  nowhere.  It  had  not  been  touched  by  any  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  and  all  of  them  had  been  in  the  apartment, 
except  for  a  single  moment  when  all  had  gone  out  together,  leav- 
ing only  a  two-year-old  infant  in  the  room.  The  search  for  the 
paper  detained  him  for  a  minute  ;  and,  though  he  made  haste, 
he  was  too  late  for  the  early  train,  and  returned  from  the  station 
to  have  his  disappointment  changed  into  bad  humor  by  the  dis- 
covery that  his  little  boy  had  climbed  up  to  the  mantel-piece, 
taken  the  paper,  and  torn  it  to  pieces.  In  a  little  while  the  tele- 
graph reported  the  total  wrecking  of  that  particular  train,  and 
the  killing  and  mangling  of  nearly  all  the  passengers.  He 
regarded  that  as  a  "  special  providence  "  to  him,  forgetting  that 
the  same  providence  had  carried  him  every  day  for  years  over 
that  same  road  without  any  accident  to  him  or  to  any  one  else. 
In  this  particular  instance  God  enabled  him  to  see  the  connection 
between  the  trivial  event  of  the  loss  of  a  paper  and  the  preserva" 
tion  of  his  life  ;  but  on  a  thousand  occasions  before,  his  life  had 
been  preserved  by  circumstances  equally  trivial,  only  he  was  not 
permitted  to  see  their  causal  efficiency. 

(4.)  But  there  is  another  sense  in  which  the  doctrine  of  a  spe- 
cial Providence  is  true  and  as  precious  as  it  is  true.  This  is  the 
doctrine  as  stated  by  Paul,  ^'■All  things  work  together  for  good 


SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE.  221 

to  them  that  love  God,  to  them  who  are  the  called  according  to  His 
purpose."  All  things  are  special  providences  for  the  good  of 
God's  people.  In  some  way  that  I  cannot  comprehend,  my  life 
is  bound  up  in  all  the  complicated  web  of  His  providence.  I 
cannot  unravel  the  intricate  windings  of  that  all-comprehending 
plan ;  but  I  know  from  His  Word  that  I  am  personally  interested 
in  every  process  and  in  every  atom  of  the  vast  universe,  which 
He  manages  and  controls.  "  The  whole  material  system  is  a 
ministry  for  good  to  me.  The  beauty,  the  poetry,  the  majesty, 
and  the  wonder  of  creation  reflect  the  nature  and  echo  the  voice 
of  God.  A  Father's  tenderness  shines  down  from  every  star  and 
smiles  upon  me  from  every  common  flower.  His  wisdom  breathes 
in  the  golden  calm  of  the  summer's  day  and  His  power  careers 
in  the  storm.  Interest  in  us  beams  in  the  countenance  of  Orion 
on  his  distant  and  dazzling  throne ;  and  the  landscape  beneath 
us,  with  sloping  vales,  wooded  crests,  and  gleaming  floods,  is  the 
face  of  a  friend.  This  fallen  world  is  made  a  scene  of  benignity 
and  benediction,  and  all  is  constrained  to  work  for  good  to  us. 
All  the  ages  are  linked  together,  and  men  of  all  time  join  hands 
to  bless  us.  For  good  to  those  who  love  God,  Egypt  reared  its 
pyramids  and  Nineveh  its  palaces,  Phoenicia  traded,  Greece  spec- 
ulated, and  Rome  conquered.  For  good  to  them,  the  Hebrew 
conceived  subhmity,  and  the  subtle  Greek  wrought  to  finest  tem- 
per his  perfect  tongue.  For  good  to  them,  Adam  fell,  Abraham 
believed,  David  sung,  Isaiah  soared,  Jerusalem  apostatized,  Judas 
played  traitor,  the  Lord  wept  on  Olivet,  agonized  in  Gethsemane, 
and  died  on  Calvary." 

(5.)  If  the  eyes  of  God's  omniscience  are  always  open  to  behold 
us,  we  may  well  believe  that  the  arms  of  His  goodness  are  open 
to  embrace  us.  As  the  multitude  of  His  concerns  does  not  hinder 
His  intimate  knowledge  of  them,  so  neither  does  it  hinder  His 
care  over  them.  The  Apostle  Peter  advises  us  to  cast  all  our 
care  upon  Him,  for  He  caretli  for  us.  If  God  has  a  tender  care 
for  sparrows,  and  has  this  moment  a  conscious  knowledge  of  the 
number  of  the  hairs  in  your  heads,  why  should  you  fear  to  com- 
mit to  Him  your  important  concerns  ?  Nay  more,  why  should 
you  fear  to  consult  Him  and  to  ask  His  interposition  in  what  you 


222  SPECIAL  PROVIDENCE. 

may  consider  matters  too  insignificant  to  merit  His  notice  ?  When 
He  says  cast  all  your  care,  He  means  all  yom*  cares  on  Him,  for 
He  careth  for  all  your  interests  and  is  not  offended  when  you 
present  the  most  trivial  desire  in  your  petitions  to  Him. 

(6.)  Lastly.  It  is  perfectly  rational  to  pray  to  God  for  anything 
for  which  He  has  encouraged  us  to  pray  in  His  Word.  Solomon 
prayed  for  wisdom,  Hezekiah  for  restoration  to  health,  Jabez  for 
temporal  prosperity,  Asa  for  victory  over  his  enemies  in  battle, 
EHjah  for  rain,  David  for  pardon  and  sanctification,  and  God 
heard  all  these  prayers,  God  is  immanent  in  the  world,  inti- 
mately and  always  present  with  every  particle  of  matter ;  and  this 
is  a  presence  not  of  being  only,  but  of  knowledge  and  power. 
What  sort  of  God  would  that  be  who  made  a  universe  of  matter, 
and  impressed  such  laws  upon  it  as  to  put  it  beyond  the  reach  of 
His  immediate  control  ?  "  It  is  by  a  natural  law  or  physical  force 
that  vapor  arises  from  the  surface  of  the  ocean  and  is  formed 
into  clouds  and  condenses  and  falls  in  showers  upon  the  earth, 
yet  God  so  controls  the  operation  of  the  laws  producing  these 
effects,  that  He  sends  rain  when  and  where  He  pleases.  The 
same  is  true  of  all  the  operations  of  nature  and  all  events  in  the 
external  world.  They  are  due  to  the  efficiency  of  physical  forces ; 
but  those  which  are  combined,  adjusted,  and  made  to  co-operate 
with  or  to  counteract  each  other,  in  the  greatest  complexity,  are 
all  under  the  constant  guidance  of  God,  and  are  made  to  accom- 
plish His  purpose.  It  is  perfectly  rational,  therefore,  in  a  world 
where  blind  natural  forces  are  the  proximate  causes  of  everything 
that  occurs,  to  pray  for  health,  for  protection,  for  fruitful  seasons, 
for  success  in  business  and  in  study,  for  rain,  for  peace  and  pros- 
perity, since  all  these  events  are  determined  by  the  intelligent 
agency  of  God." 

My  brethren,  let  not  a  half-fledged  science  or  the  baptized  infidel- 
ity of  half-educated  teachers,  or  the  speculations  of  an  infidel  philos- 
ophy, cheat  you  out  of  the  consolations  and  support  which  the  Bible 
gives  you,  when  it  tells  you  that  you  would  be  as  helpless  orphans 
but  for  the  constant  oversight  and  protection  of  a  heavenly  Father, 
who,  having  been  great  enough  to  create,  is  powerful  to  control 
every  pulsation  of  the  vast  Cosmos  of  which  you  are  a  part. 


XX. 

INFLUENCE. 

"  And  that  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity." — Joshtta  xxii.  20. 

The  narratives  of  the  Bible  are  eminently  instructive.  All 
history  is  providence  teaching  by  example ;  for  as  Solomon  tells 
us,  "  The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that  which  shall  be,  and  that 
which  is  done  is  that  which  shall  be  done,  and  there  is  no  new 
thing  under  the  sun."  Every  human  life  is  simply  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  old  in  the  new.  Dr.  Johnson  has  said  that  "  the 
biography  of  the  most  unimportant  individual  on  the  globe,  were 
it  fully  written  out  so  that  the  life  should  appear  just  and  fully 
as  it  was,  would  overflow  with  interest  and  entertainment  for  all 
men."  Bible  history  has  the  advantage  over  all  profane  history. 
The  latter  presents  facts  and  the  deductions  which  the  writer 
draws  from  them.  The  former  presents  us  with  facts  too,  but 
furnishes  us  with  their  providential  meaning  as  revealed  by  the 
pen  of  inspiration. 

Hence  Scripture  narrative  always  teaches  important  doctrines. 
Men  who  look  upon  the  narratives  of  the  Old  Testament  as  com- 
paratively unimportant,  inasmuch  as  they  are  so  largely  made  up 
of  brief  biographical  notices  of  comparatively  obscure  individ- 
uals, lose  sight  of  this  fact.  But  the  Apostle  tells  us  that  "  what- 
soever things  were  written  aforetime,  were  written  for  our  learn- 
ing ";  "  that  these  things  happened  for  ensamples  and  are  written 
for  our  admonition,  upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come  " 
(Rom.  XV.  4,  and  1  Cor.  x.  11).  Scripture  history  is  a  record  not 
only  of  the  actions  of  men  of  the  olden  time,  but  of  God's  deal- 
ings with  them ;  and  while  it  represents  them  as  actors,  it  lifts 
the  curtain  from  the  Divine  purpose,  and  shows  us  the  reasons 

(223) 


224  INFLUENCE. 

for  the  providential  dispensations  it  records.  The  history  of  the 
ein  and  punishment  of  Achan  is  eminently  instructive  in  itself, 
and  very  suggestive  of  important  truth.  In  order  to  present  the 
subject  more  distinctly,  suffer  me  to  recapitulate  the  main  inci- 
dents. 

Joshua,  by  Divine  command,  besieges  the  city  of  Jericho. 
The  whole  city  was  devoted  to  complete  destruction — it  was  to 
be  razed  to  the  ground  and  utterly  obliterated  from  the  earth. 
Every  living  thing,  man  and  woman,  young  and  old,  oxen,  sheep, 
asses,  were  all  to  be  destroyed  with  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and 
everything  in  it  was  to  be  burned  with  fire.  Two  exceptions  to 
this  decree  of  general  devastation  were  made  in  favor — 

First,  of  the  family  of  Rahab,  the  harlot,  because  she  hid  the 
Bpies  that  were  sent  into  the  city. 

Second,  of  the  silver  and  gold,  which  were  to  be  saved  and 
consecrated  to  the  treasury  of  the  house  of  the  Lord.  The  people 
were  strictly  forbidden  to  appropriate  the  treasure  which  should  be 
found  in  the  city,  but  were  commanded  to  bring  it  all  to  Joshua  to 
be  set  apart  to  a  sacred  use.  In  direct  disobedience  to  the  Divine 
command,  Achan,  a  man  belonging  to  the  tribe  of  Judah,  appro- 
priates and  secretes  a  magnificent  robe,  two  hundred  shekels  of 
silver,  and  a  heavy  bar  of  gold — burying  them  in  the  midst  of 
his  tent.  His  sin  was  two-fold.  (1.)  He  was  guilty  of  direct 
disobedience  to  the  commands  of  God.  (2.)  He  was  guilty  of 
sacrilege. 

The  consequences  of  his  sin  at  once  manifested  themselves, 
not  in  any  direct  judgment  upon  him,  but  in  the  evidences  of 
God's  displeasure  against  the  whole  people.  For  after  the  con- 
quest of  Jericho,  Joshua  sent  men  to  Ai,  an  insignificant  town  in 
the  vicinity.  Its  means  of  resistance  were  so  feeble  that  he  did 
not  judge  it  necessary  to  detail  more  than  two  or  three  thousand 
men  for  its  reduction.  The  assault  upon  this  stronghold  resulted 
in  a  shameful  defeat,  and  in  the  loss  of  thirty-six  men.  Instead 
of  fighting  valiantly,  the  hearts  of  the  Israelites  became  as  water. 
Joshua  at  once  inquires  the  reason  of  God,  and  he  is  informed 
that  this  defeat  is  a  judicial  consequence  of  sin  on  the  part  of  Is- 
rael.  "  They  have  taken  of  the  accursed  thing,  and  dissembled  also, 


INFLUENCE.  225 

and  have  put  it  among  their  stuff,  Neither  will  I  be  with  you 
any  more,  except  ye  destroy  the  accursed  from  among  you." 

The  person  who  had  transgressed  was  to  be  discovered  by  an 
appeal  to  the  religious  lot.  The  sin  is  very  soon  fixed  by  a  pro- 
cess of  exculpation  and  elimination  upon  the  tribe  of  Judah ; 
then  upon  the  family  of  Zerah,  then  upon  the  family  of  Zabdi, 
then  upon  the  family  of  Carmi,  and  then  upon  Achan  himself. 

When  there  was  no  longer  hope  of  concealment,  he  confesses 
his  sin  and  discloses  the  place  of  concealment.  Then  Joshua  and 
all  the  people  with  him  took  Achan,  and  the  silver,  and  the  gar- 
ment, and  the  wedge  of  gold,  and  his  sons,  and  his  daughters, 
and  his  oxen,  and  his  asses,  and  his  sheep,  and  his  tent,  and  all 
that  he  had,  and  brought  them  into  the  valley  of  Achor,  and  all 
Israel  stoned  him  with  stones  and  burned  them  with  fire,  after  they 
had  stoned  them  with  stones.  And  they  raised  over  them  a  great 
heap  of  stones  unto  this  day.  And  the  place  which  was  the  scene 
of  this  terrible  retribution,  was  called  Achor,  that  is  trouhle — to 
be  a  perpetual  remembrance  of  this  man's  sin  and  punishment. 

This  transaction  was  intended  to  make  a  deep  moral  impression 
on  the  people.  For,  twenty-four  years  after  its  occurrence,  we 
find  Joshua  alluding  to  it  in  an  address  he  makes  to  the  people ; 
and  in  the  words  of  our  text  he  reminds  them,  that  "  that  man  per- 
ished not  alone  in  his  iniquity." 

Let  us  now  consider  the  lessons  we  are  to  learn  from  this  nar- 
rative. 

I.  One  of  the  most  evident  inferences  we  may  draw  from  this 
story,  is  that  the  true  design  of  punishment  is  not  to  secure  the 
reformation  of  the  offender.  This  is  a  doctrine  of  the  Bible 
which  modern  legislators  and  judges  continually  ignore.  It  is 
a  fact  pregnant  with  instruction,  that  just  so  far  as  this  doctrine 
of  the  Scripture  is  lost  sight  of  in  the  administration  of  our 
criminal  law,  crimes  have  increased,  and  the  guarantees  which 
society  professes  to  throw  around  life  and  property,  are  rendered 
nuU  and  void.  A  sickly  sentimentality  has  dared  to  substitute 
imprisonment  for  life  for  the  penalty  which  the  law  of  God  de- 
nounces against  the  murderer.    The  consequence  is,  that  through- 


226  INFLUENCE. 

out  oiir  whole  land  the  murderer  and  the  assassin  stalk  abroad. 
"We  seem  to  have  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  crimes  against  the 
good  order  and  peace  of  society  demand  punishment — that  re- 
tributive justice  is  due  to  every  infraction  of  law,  irrespective  of 
all  the  pleas  for  mercy  which  may  be  urged  in  behalf  of  the 
criminal.  "We  can  never  depart  with  safety  from  the  law  which 
God  has  established  for  the  government  of  human  society ;  and 
the  experience  of  every  human  society  which  has  invented  ex- 
pedients for  releasing  the  criminal  from  the  penalty  which  his 
sin  deserves,  goes  to  prove  that  it  is  the  will  of  God  that  every 
sin  shall  meet  with  its  just  recompense.  "Why  is  it  that  our 
whole  land  is  full  of  assassins  and  murderers  ?  It  is  because  our 
short-sighted  rulers,  seeking  to  be  wiser  and  more  merciful  than 
God,  have  erected  the  penitentiary  as  a  place  of  reformation  for 
those  whom  God  has  declared  to  be  worthy  of  death.  And  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  God  is  visiting  our  whole  land  with  a 
curse,  because  of  the  unexpiated  crimes  which  our  rulers  and 
judges  suffer  to  stalk  abroad  unwhipt  of  justice.  The  whole 
course  of  God's  moral  administration  goes  to  show  that  the 
reformation  of  the  criminal  is  neither  the  design  nor  the  ordi- 
nary result  of  the  infliction  of  His  punishments.  The  Scriptures 
everywhere  teach  that  sin  is  punished  because  it  deserves  to  be 
punished,  and  because  justice  demands  it.  It  is  because  the 
wages  of  sin  is  punishment,  and  not  because  punishment  may 
lead  to  repentance,  that  penalties  are  attached  to  the  infraction  of 
law.  The  Scriptures  teach  even  more  than  this.  They  teach 
that,  while  it  is  promotive  of  the  best  interests  of  society  that 
crime  should  be  punished,  even  the  good  of  society  is  not  the 
primary  end  of  punishment — in  other  words,  that  judicial  penal- 
ties are  not  just  because  they  are  expedient,  but  that  they  are 
expedient  because  they  are  just.  And  we  may  be  assured  that 
the  evils  which  now  curse  our  land,  will  never  be  remedied  until 
we  shall  return  to  a  recognition  of  these  Scriptural  views  of  the 
true  design  of  punishment. 

"When  justice  shall  resume  her  rightful  sway,  and  only  then, 
may  we  hope  to  sit,  each  man  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree, 
with  none  to  molest  or  make  us  afraid. 


INFLUENCE.  227 

II.  A  second  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the  story  of  Aehan  is, 
that  the  organic  constitution  of  the  family  is  such  that  the  sins 
of  parents  necessarily  involve  their  children.  Attempts  have 
been  made  by  infidels  to  render  the  character  of  God  odious  to 
men  by  representing  the  punishment  of  Achan's  whole  family  as 
a  wanton  act  of  barbarous  revenge.  We  are  not  particularly 
anxious  to  vindicate  the  character  of  God  against  such  miserable 
cavillers.  Three  modes  of  justifying  this  indiscriminate  sacrifice 
of  the  whole  family  have  been  suggested. 

The  first  is  the  supposition  that  the  members  of  his  family 
were  accomplices  in  Achan's  sin.  This  would  be  a  satisfactory 
mode  of  accounting  for  the  slaughter  of  the  adult  members  of 
his  family,  but  would  not  explain  the  visitation  of  vengeance  on 
the  younger  members  and  the  innocent  cattle  which  belonged  to 
him. 

The  second  mode  of  accounting  for  it  is  the  supposition  that 
they  fell  as  the  victims  of  a  popular  outbreak.  This  might  do  as 
an  explanation,  did  not  the  narrative  indicate  that  the  punishment 
was  inflicted  by  authority  and  with  every  appearance  of  calm 
deliberation. 

A  third  mode  of  explaining  it  is  that  they  were  punished  by 
Divine  authority  and  according  to  the  law  of  God's  government ; 
that  He  visits  the  iniquities  of  the  fathers  upon  the  unoffending 
children  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 

No  matter  which  explanation  you  adopt,  the  fact  illustrates  the 
truth  of  the  principle  that  such  is  the  organic  relation  of  the 
members  of  a  family  that  the  evil  deeds  of  one  affect  all  the  rest. 
This  truth  is  every  day  exemplified  before  our  eyes. 

Look  at  the  drunkard  as  he  reels  through  the  streets.  May  he 
not  do  what  he  will  with  his  own  ?  He  says  he  is  a  free  man,  and 
if  he  chooses  to  wreck  his  body  and  soul  he  injures  no  one  but 
himself.  But  look  at  his  family.  Look  at  the  wretched  woman 
to  whom,  in  earlier  days,  he  plighted  his  love,  and  whom  he 
promised  to  cherish,  support,  and  nourish,  now  a  lonely  watcher 
by  the  dying  embers  of  a  desolate  hearth,  nursing  amidst  her 
tearful  vigils  the  memories  of  her  early  love,  and  weeping  over 
the  graves  of  murdered  joys  :  and  look  at  his  famished  children 


228  INFLUENCE. 

crying  for  bread,  and  vainly  appealing  to  their  besotted  father 
for  a  morsel  to  appease  the  gnawings  of  their  hunger.  Or  even 
in  those  cases  in  which  the  family  are  not  reduced  to  poverty,  see 
how  the  depraved  tastes  of  the  father  are  transmitted  to  the  chil- 
dren, and  his  evil  example  combines  with  hereditary  procli\dties 
to  fasten  upon  them  the  sins  which  have  destroyed  his  life,  and 
to  cause  them  to  rush  into  the  same  courses  of  excess  and  crime. 

See  how  the  dishonesty  or  fraud  of  men  conspicuous  in  official 
position  brings  ruin  and  disgrace  on  those  who  had  no  part  in  the 
commission  of  the  sin.  See  them  pointed  out  by  the  finger  of 
scorn  and  even  pursued  to  the  seclusion  they  may  seek  in  distant 
lands  across  the  seas  by  the  restless  footsteps  of  Rumor,  that 
sleepless  hound  that  tracks  the  flight  of  crime  to  its  most  secret 
haunts,  and  that  howls  remorselessly  at  all  who  may,  by  domestic 
association  or  casual  contact,  have  been  tainted  with  the  odor  of 
fraud  or  corruption. 

See  how  the  Infidel  and  the  Scoffer  bequeath  their  skepticism 
and  ungodliness  to  their  children  and  doom  their  innocent  off- 
spring to  grow  up  like  themselves,  abhorred  by  man  and  aban- 
doned by  God. 

If  it  were  necessary  to  enforce  these  arguments  from  example, 
I  might  give  you  names  familiar  to  us  all — in  connection  with 
which  each  one  of  those  statements  is  illustrated.  Thus  our  own 
observation,  short  and  limited  as  it  is,  is  sufficiently  wide  to  con- 
firm the  doctrine  of  the  text,  that  such  is  the  organic  unity  of 
the  family  that  the  sins  of  parents  necessarily  involve  their 
innocent  children  in  a  common  ruin. 

III.  Another  general  principle  taught  by  this  narrative  is  that 
the  whole  body  of  any  civil  community  is  justly  held  responsible 
for  the  sins  of  the  individuals  composing  it.  That  part  of  the 
history  of  Achan  which  illustrates  this  is  God's  displeasure  against 
the  whole  congregation  of  Israel  for  the  sin  of  this  one  man. 
He  subjected  their  army  to  an  inglorious  defeat  and  visited 
thirty-six  families  with  sad  bereavement.  Those  thirty-six  men 
who  fell  at  Ai  were  not  partakers  of  Achan's  sin,  but  they  were 
made  partakers  of  his  guilt.     The  sin  of  the  individual  was  im- 


INFLUENCE.  229 

puted  not  only  to  his  family,  but  to  the  whole  nation,  and  a  por- 
tion of  the  penalty  was  borne  by  it.  There  are  some  who  find 
insuperable  difficulties  in  admitting  that  Adam's  guilt  is  imputed 
to  his  posterity.  Let  such  consider  this  narrative  and  see  whether 
the  doctrine  that  God  can  impute  guilt  to  those  who  are  person- 
ally innocent,  does  not  derive  support  from  this  instance  of  God's 
dealings  with  His  people.  Nor  is  it  so  hard  to  understand  the 
principle  upon  which  God  thus  deals  with  communities  and 
nations.  Every  community  is  made  up  of  individuals,  governed 
hy  laws^  to  which  each  voluntarily  confesses  his  allegiance.  It  is 
the  duty  of  each  member  of  such  a  community  to  obey  the  law 
and  to  promote  both  the  observance  of  its  precept  and  the  execu- 
tion of  its  penalties.  Now,  if  every  man  does  his  whole  duty  m 
hoth  these  particulars.^  all  infraction  of  law  would  cease :  there 
could  he  no  crime.  But  in  every  community  there  will  be  those 
who  violate  the  laws.  Now,  if  all  the  rest  earnestly  and  honestly 
seek  to  have  the  laws  obeyed,  the  criminal  never  could  escape 
detection  and  punishment.  The  certainty  of  punishment  would 
deter  even  the  vicious  from  the  commission  of  crime ;  and  though 
occasionally  the  restraints  of  fear  would  be  broken  through,  yet 
only  occasionally  would  this  occur  under  the  impulse  of  overmas- 
tering passion.  It  is  evident  that  if  each  member  of  a  community 
were  held  to  a  practical  accountability  for  the  sins  of  his  neighbor, 
crime  would  be  greatly  diminished.  If,  for  example,  the  loss  by 
burglary  or  by  incendiary  conflagration  were  assessed  on  the  in- 
habitants of  a  city,  is  it  not  clear  that  when  the  burglar  or  incen- 
diary should  be  grasped  by  the  clutches  of  justice,  the  people 
would  see  to  it  that  he  should  not  escape  condign  punishment  ? 
If  the  family  of  a  murdered  citizen  were  by  law  supported  at  the 
expense  of  the  city  or  village  in  which  the  murder  was  committed, 
think  you  that  the  murderer  would  be  suffered  to  walk  off  in  the 
face  of  the  broad  day,  or  that  with  his  single  arm  he  could  defy 
an  indignant  populace  to  take  him  alive  ?  These  supposed  cases 
illustrate  the  truth  that  it  is  in  the  power  of  every  community  to 
restrain  and  prevent  crime  by  the  cultivation  of  a  healthy  public 
opinion,  and  a  prompt  and  firm  administration  of  public  justice. 
If  on  account  of  low  views  of  morality  and  a  perverted  sympathy 


230  INFLUENCE. 

for  the  criminal,  crime  is  suffered  to  escape  the  arrest  or  the  exe- 
cution of  the  law,  then  is  that  community  held  responsible  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  in  the  sight  of  mankind  for  the  sins  of  its  indi- 
vidual members.  The  ancient  Egyptians  recognized  this  principle 
in  their  penal  code.  "  Whoever  had  it  in  his  power  to  save  the 
life  of  a  citizen  and  neglected  to  do  so  was  punished  as  his  mur- 
derer; and  if  a  person  was  found  murdered,  the  city  within 
whose  bounds  the  murder  had  been  committed  was  obliged  to 
embalm  the  body  in  the  most  costly  manner,  and  bestow  on  it  the 
most  sumptuous  funeral."  And  although  we  do  practically  ignore 
it  in  these  modern  days  of  illumination,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  in  God's  providential  dealings  with  communities,  He  holds 
the  community  responsible  for  the  sins  of  its  members.  You 
may  ask,  is  this  just  ?  I  reply,  this  is  not  the  question.  The 
question  is  not  one  oi  justice,  but  of  fact,  and  a  wide  observation 
of  the  history  of  civil  society  will  demonstrate  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  that,  in  the  long  run,  the  penalty  of  unexpiated  crime 
is  paid  by  society  at  large.  And  if  we  are  to  learn  any  lesson 
from  the  story  of  Achan  it  is  this,  that  it  is  not  only  natural  but 
right  that  this  should  be  so. 

lY.  A  more  general  principle  which  I  derive  from  this  narra- 
tive is  that  the  sins  of  individuals  not  only  involve  them  in  ruin, 
but  inflict  irreparable  injury  on  aU  who  may  be  either  directly  or 
indirectly  associated  with  them.  This  is  seen  to  be  true  a  jpriori 
by  a  consideration  of  the  constitution  of  human  society.  The 
law  of  society  is  mutual  dependence  and  influence.  Cold  isola- 
tion, though  he  may  seek  it,  is  impossible  for  man.  Ton  may 
take  the  wings  of  the  morning  and  fly  to  the  uttermost  part  of 
the  sea,  but  you  cannot  sever  the  links  that  bind  you  to  your  fel- 
low-man. God  has  so  united  the  whole  human  family  by  chains  of 
sympathy  and  influence,  that  the  actions  of  every  man  have  their 
influence  upon  the  character  and  destiny  of  every  other  individual 
of  his  species.  The  examples  of  men  conspicuous  before  the  public 
eye  prove  this.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  able  to  trace  the  influence 
of  the  more  obscure  members  of  human  society,  in  order  to  tlie 
proof  of  the  general  principle.    "We  know  the  less  by  the  greater. 


INFLUENCE.  231 

Wlien  a  child  projects  a  pebble  across  a  brook,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary for  us  to  feel  the  shock  or  to  detect  the  vibration,  in  order 
to  believe  that  the  earth  is  really  deflected  from  its  orbit  by  the 
minute  concussion.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  the  law  of  grav- 
itation is  universal,  pervading  the  ultimate  atoms  of  matter.  So, 
also,  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  be  able  to  see  in  every 
human  being  a  Jeroboam,  who  caused  a  whole  nation  to  sin,  in 
order  to  believe  that  no  individual  can  be  detached  and  made  in- 
dependent of  the  rest.  It  is  enough  to  know  the  general  law  of 
the  reciprocal  action  and  mutual  relation  of  all  animated  beings. 
But  if  we  could  lift  the  veil  which  hides  the  moral  world  from 
our  view,  and  selecting  some  one  individual,  could  disentangle 
and  detach  all  his  relations  from  their  innumerable  complications, 
and  could  investigate  his  whole  moral  history,  we  should  find 
that  "  from  the  very  first  moment  of  his  existence,  his  character 
has  gone  on  daily  and  hourly,  streaming  with  a  more  than  electric 
fluid,  with  a  subtle  penetrating  element  of  moral  influence ;  that, 
in  whatever  society  he  mingled,  he  left  on  their  character  secret 
but  not  imperceptible  traces  that  he  had  been  among  them." 
We  should  see  that  every  word  he  uttered  or  wrote  has  flashed 
along  the  line  of  a  thousand  spiritual  telegraphs  centring  in 
him  ;  that  at  every  point  along  these  lines,  new  centres  of  influ- 
ence were  created,  and  that  thus  his  thought,  his  sin,  has  been 
transmitted  in  silent  but  certain  effect  all  around  the  world,  to 
the  uttermost  circle  of  social  existence.  We  should  find  that  the 
moral  forces  thus  generated,  like  the  forces  which  pervade  the 
material  world,  are  indestructible,  not  a  particle  ever  being  lost, 
and  that  they  will  go  on  tlirilling  through  the  universe,  all  being 
taken  up  into  the  general  system  of  cause  and  effect,  and  always 
operating  somewhere. 

*'  As  the  small  pebble  stirs  the  peaceful  lake; 
The  centre  moved,  a  cu'cle  sti'aight  succeeds, 
Another  still,  and  still  another  spreads  ; 
Fi'iends,  parents,  kindred,  first  it  will  embrace, 
His  country  next,  and  next  all  human  race." 

Now  this  influence  exerted  by  all  is  both  voluntary  and  invol- 


232  INFLUENCE. 

untary.  Sometimes  it  is  exercised  with  the  conscious  purpose  of 
producing  a  result  in  those  with  whom  the  man  is  in  actual  con- 
tact ;  and,  so  far  as  thej  are  concerned,  he  may  be  considered  as 
having  control  over  it.  But  by  far  the  larger  proportion  of  each 
man's  influence  is  exerted  involuntarily  and  unconsciously.  And 
whether  an  action  be  performed  with  or  without  reference  to  the 
production  of  an  effect  on  another,  it  produces  that  effect  whether 
you  will  it  or  not.  Once  done,  you  cannot  recall  the  influence  of 
actions  any  more  than  the  unfortunate  companions  of  Ulysses 
could  chain  the  winds  when  once  released  from  the  bag  of  ^olus. 
Thus  every  man  is  the  unconscious  and  involuntary  agent  in  the 
moulding  of  the  character  of  others,  remote  from  his  immediate 
presence.  And  his  involuntary  influence  is  also  constantly 
streaming  forth  upon  all  immediately  ai'ound.  Not  like  the  in- 
termittent glow  of  the  fire-fly,  which  may  be  quenched  at  will, 
but  like  the  phosphorescent  putrefactions  of  the  sepulchre  that 
emit  a  steady  light ;  not  like  the  transient  electric  shocks  of  the 
torpedo,  but  like  the  magnetic  current  of  the  loadstone,  which  never 
grows  feebler  and  which  imparts  its  own  polarity  to  every  object 
within  the  sphere  of  its  attraction.  Such  are  some  of  the  a 
priori  arguments  in  favor  of  the  proposition  suggested  by  the 
text.  Were  it  necessary  to  illustrate  by  arguments  drawn  from 
example,  history  would  furnish  us  with  innumerable  instances. 
But  I  turn  from  the  proof  of  the  proposition  to  some  of  the  ob- 
vious practical  reflections  and  inferences  drawn  from  it. 

"What  a  vast  responsibility  rests  upon  each  one  of  you  in  view 
of  the  momentous  consequences  that  flow  out  of  your  conduct 
and  character !  It  is  usual  to  say  that  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  die  / 
but  how  much  more  solemn  and  awful  a  thing  it  is  to  live — to 
live  in  a  world  constituted  like  ours !  Do  we  realize  as  we  ought, 
that  each  one  of  us  is  by  his  habits,  by  his  opinions,  by  his  words 
and  by  his  actions,  concerned  in  shaping  the  final  destiny  of  all 
the  rest  ?  Do  you  reaKze  that  you  are  daily  tracing  lines  upon 
the  characters  of  all  around  you,  which  though  now  invisible,  like 
pencillings  with  sympathetic  ink,  will  certainly  become  legible 
amidst  the  fires  of  the  last  day,  and  will  reveal  your  handwriting 
and  identify  you  as  the  author  ?    It  is  a  solemn  thing  to  live,  and 


INFLUENCE.  233 

the  longer  life  shall  be,  the  more  solemn  it  will  be  to  die.  For 
when  we  come  to  die,  we  shall  not  enter  upon  our  final  state  with- 
out the  company  of  those  whom  we  have  educated  for  heaven  or 
hell.  The  specific  doctrine  of  the  text  to  which  I  would  most 
seriously  direct  your  attention  is  that  when  a  man  lives  a  life  of 
Bin  and  at  last  goes  down  to  hell,  he  will  certainly  involve  many 
others  in  his  ruin.  If  any  of  you,  my  beloved  hearers,  should  at 
last  make  your  bed  and  lie  down  in  eternal  burnings,  it  will  be 
written  as  the  vindication  of  the  justice  of  God  in  your  everlast- 
ing torment,  "  That  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity." 

I  have  ah'eady  alluded  to  the  fact  that  the  sins  of  the  parents 
involve  their  children  in  the  temporal  calamities  which  always 
follow  a  course  of  crime.  I  might  go  on  to  show  that  in  most 
cases  they  leave  a  heritage  of  spiritual  ruin,  to  their  unfortunate 
offspring. 

Behold  the  father  of  a  family — himself  ungodly,  profane,  and 
worldly ; — how  can  his  children  be  any  better  than  he  ?  What 
he  is  they  will  be  of  necessity,  except  in  some  rare  instances,  in 
which  by  an  almost  miraculous  interposition  they  are  snatched  as 
brands  from  the  burning.  He  may  be  a  man  despised  by  his 
neighbors,  and  without  social  influence,  or  perhaps  unknown  to 
the  busy  world  around  him.  But  there  is  one  circle  where  he  is 
supreme  :  it  is  in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  And  when  he  dies, 
he  will  carry  a  sufiicient  number  with  him  to  justify  the  mourn- 
ful epitaph,  "  That  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity." 

But  suppose  that  he  has  wealth  and  social  position.  Suppose 
that  he  is  surrounded  by  dependents  and  admirers,  who  feel  hon- 
ored by  his  smile,  and  who  are  only  too  proud  to  minister  to  his 
passions  and  imitate  his  vices.  How  will  these  adventitious  cir- 
cumstances help  to  increase  the  long  train  of  those  whom  he 
drags  down  to  a  hopeless  perdition !  In  his  case,  with  how 
much  greater  emphasis  may  we  repeat  it,  "  That  man  perished 
not  alone  in  his  iniquity." 

But  let  us  shift  the  scene.  Look  at  that  group  of  young  men, 
as  they  stand  closely  huddled  together  about  some  favorite  haunt  of 
the  idle  and  the  profane.  What  is  it  that  so  engrosses  their  at- 
tention ?    Are  they  engaged  in  some  interesting  discussion  on 


234  INFLUENCE. 

subjects  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  intelligent  and  the  re- 
fined? Ah,  no!  Their  frequent  idiotic  laughter  proves  that 
they  are  full  of  vain  thoughts.  Theirs  is  the  mirth  of  ^^ fools 
who  are  making  a  mock  at  sin."  And  who  is  it  that  is  able  to 
give  them  such  entertainment  ?  Is  it  one  whom  they  all  admire 
and  respect  ?  Is  it  some  lofty  genius  before  whom  they  all  stand 
as  confessed  inferiors  %  And  do  they  defer  to  his  intelligence 
and  wisdom  ?  And  is  their  applause  extorted  from  their  genuine 
admiration  of  his  person  and  character?  Alas!  no.  He  is  a 
low  and  liulgar  luffoon  ;  a  depraved  and  ignorant  dolt ;  a  heastly 
scavenger  of  all  the  foul  abominations  of  the  hrothel ;  a  retailer 
oi  filthy  anecdotes  and  jests,  treasured  up  in  a  mind  capacious  of 
such  things ;  a  poor,  pitiful  object  of  contempt  to  the  very  men 
who  hang  upon  his  lips,  and  seem  to  drink  in  his  slimy  feculence 
like  honey  from  Hymettus.  And  yet  this  poor  fool,  who  thus 
prostitutes  himself  to  their  amusement,  is  thought  to  be  so  far 
beneath  contempt  that  he  is  accounted  to  have  no  influence 
among  his  fellows.  They  seem  to  think  that  the  leprosy  of  a 
beggar  cannot  infect  the  blood  of  a  high-born  gentleman.  But 
when  he  shall  perish  in  his  iniquity,  it  will  be  found  at  last  that 
this  despicable  and  obscure  insignificant  sinner,  as  they  are 
pleased  to  regard  him,  has  sown  the  seeds  of  corruption  in  the 
soil  of  many  a  congenial  heart,  and  that  ''Hhis  man^  too,  perished 
not  alone  in  his  iniquity P 

In  further  illustration  of  the  text,  let  me  draw  one  more  pic- 
ture. Suppose  we  enter  a  group  of  young  men  collected  in  some 
place  of  resort,  for  the  purpose  of  enjoying  a  midnight  revel. 
The  moment  I  enter,  I  see  that  there  is  one  who  is  the  master 
spirit, — the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  rest.  He  has  talents,  he 
has  wealth,  he  is  distinguished  by  a  frank  and  manly  bearing. 
His  beaming  eye,  his  noble  brow,  show  that  the  influence  he 
wields  is  due  to  the  native  intellect  and  the  magnanimous  spirit 
which  God  had  given  him.  Although  really  wicked,  he  bears, 
like  Satan,  some  traces  of  the  grandeur  that  would  have  ennobled 
him,  unf alien. 

He  has  come  to  the  city,  he  collects  friends,  congenial  spirits 


INFLUENCE.  235 

who  admire  tlie  traits  of  character  I  have  described.  But  he  has 
been  trained  by  ungodly  parents,  or  he  has  cast  off  the  instruc- 
tions of  a  pious  ancestry.  Perhaps  he  has  thought  it  manly  to 
be  an  infidel,  to  sneer  at  the  rehgion  of  his  father,  and  to  scoff  at 
the  holy  devotion  of  his  mother. 

With  such  endowments  and  such  appliances  and  such  princi- 
ples, he  is  the  leader  of  every  bacchanalian  rout.  Proud  of  his 
talents,  and  anxious  to  maintain  his  ascendency,  he  is  the  tempter 
of  innocent  boys,  who  came  hither  with  the  down  of  purity  still 
fresh  upon  their  ruddy  cheeks. 

"With  no  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes,  he  riots  in  all  excess  of 
sensual  pleasure,  and  spends  his  nights  in  the  house  of  her  whose 
ways  take  hold  on  hell.  Eegardless  of  the  happiness  or  com- 
fort of  others,  he  corrupts  those  who  can  be  bribed  to  minister  to 
his  lusts,  and  deflowers  the  chastity  of  the  poor  or  of  the  social 
inferiors  by  whom  he  is  surrounded,  without  one  compunctious 
smiting  of  conscience.  At  last,  he  goes  forth  into  the  great 
world  to  enter  upon  a  still  wider  field  of  influence,  without  hav- 
ing left  one  good  impression  on  his  late  companions.  We  look 
upon  his  paths,  and  see  that  the  trail  of  the  serpent  is  over  them 
all.  His  former  associates  go  forth  too.  Some  partially  recover 
from  the  effects  of  the  insidious  poison  he  instilled  into  their 
souls ;  but  the  larger  part  have  themselves  gone  on  from  bad  to 
worse ;  themselves  corrupted,  and  now  in  turn  the  corrupters  of 
others.  He  may  live  a  long  or  a  short  life ;  but  at  last  he  dies 
a  miserable  man,  his  talents  squandered,  his  wealth  a  burden,  his 
body  bloated  by  wine  and  filled  with  the  sins  of  his  youth.  He 
dies,  and  goes  down  to  hell.  And  when  he  enters  the  world  of 
woe,  he  shall  be  met  at  the  very  portals  by  the  lost  souls  of  those 
who  have  gone  before  him.  The  Apostle  says,  "Some  men's 
sins  go  before  them  to  judgment,  and  some  they  follow  after." 
His  sins  have  gone  before  him  in  the  persons  of  the  wretched 
victims  of  his  perverted  wealth  and  influence ;  in  the  innocence 
that  he  tempted,  in  the  avarice  that  gave  him  the  cup  of  debauch- 
ery in  exchange  for  his  gold,  in  the  servile  lewdness  seduced  by 
his  bribes  into  base  compliance,  and  in  all  the  innumerable  min- 
isters to  his  ambition,  his  vanity,  and  his  lust.     And  even  before 


236  INFLUENCE. 

his  eyes  shall  have  ranged  through  the  long  vistas  of  his  gloomy 
abode,  or  have  glanced  fearfully  at  the  unquenchable  flames  of 
the  lake  of  liquid  fire,  he  will  meet  those  there  who  know  him 
and  who  will  accost  him  as  their  destroyer.  One  shall  say,  "  You 
first  taught  my  innocent  feet  the  way  to  dens  of  infamy  and  pol- 
lution, and  here  am  /appointed  to  be  your  tormentor  forever"; 
and  when  he  turns  to  flee  from  these  reproaches,  another  shall  howl 
in  his  ear  the  bitter  taunt,  "  You  first  put  the  poisoned  wine-cup 
to  my  lips,  and  thus  engendered  that  fatal  thirst  which  destroyed 
my  usefulness  in  life,  and  robbed  me  of  heaven  ";  and  another, 
all  festering  with  sores,  shall  hiss  the  dreadful  execration,  "  It 
was  for  you  that  I  decked  my  bed  with  tapestry  and  adorned 
my  person  with  ornaments  ;  for  your  yellow  gold  I  bartered  my 
body;  to  your  treacherous  smiles  I  betrayed  my  frailty,  and  to 
your  pampered  luxury  I  yielded  my  homely  virtue.  Now,  with- 
ered, ruined,  blighted,  filled  with  that  reproachful  pain  which 
rots  the  marrow  and  consumes  the  brain,  I,  whose  bed  you 
shared  on  earth,  I  am  appointed  to  make  your  bed  in  hell,  and 
heap  upon  you  the  '  waves  of  wretchedness.' "  And  another  and 
another  shall  join  their  voices  in  the  hue  and  cry,  and  shall  fill 
the  vaults  of  hell  with  their  accusations.  That  same  company  of 
boon  companions  shall  gather  around  him  once  more,  not  now  as 
before,  to  admire,  applaud,  and  imitate,  but  to  curse  him  and 
curse  the  day  which  brought  them  in  contact  with  his  baleful  in- 
fluence. "  Some  men's  sins  go  before  them  to  judgment,  and 
some  they  follow  after."  And  some  they  follow  after.  Forever 
and  anon,  as  his  old  associates  gather  around  him,  there  shall  be 
new  accessions  of  those  whom  he  had  never  known — of  those 
who  were  born  after  he  died,  that  shall  join  the  wretched  throng, 
and  identify  him  as  the  destroyer  of  those  who  in  turn  destroyed 
them.  Thus,  through  the  long  night  of  a  dismal  eternity,  re- 
morse, the  never-dying  worm,  shall  prey  upon  his  guilty  soul, 
and  it  shall  be  written  on  his  forehead,  with  the  finger  of  Divine 
retribution,  "  That  man  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity."  "  Per- 
ished," do  we  say  ? — He  shall  live  forever,  but 

"  Live  like  scorpion  girt  by  fire; — 
80  writhes  the  sovd  remorse  hath  riven, 


INFLUENCE.  237 

Unfit  for  earth,  undoomed  for  heaven, 
Darkness  above,  despair  beneath, 
Around  it  flame,  within  it  death." 

Oh,  young  men,  if  any  of  you  are  determined  to  perish,  I  pray 
'  you  to  seek  to  perish  by  yourself.  Go  hide  yourself  in  some 
mountain  sohtude,  fly  from  this  place  where  so  many  may  be 
ruined  by  your  example,  and  if  possible  avert  from  your  soul  the 
aggravated  doom  of  that  "  man  who  perished  not  alone  in  his  in- 
iquity." 

But  if  there  be  one  depth  of  woe  deeper  than  all,  it  will  be  re- 
served for  the  unfaithful  minister  who,  charged  with  the  high 
commission  of  a  watchman  to  warn  the  wicked  of  his  way,  has 
healed  slightly  their  hurt,  and  cried  '■'•Peace^''  ''^jyeace "  to  the 
wicked,  when  there  is  no  peace,  saith  my  God,  to  the  wicked. 
There  will  be  a  peculiar  aggravation  in  his  case,  for  it  will  be 
that  of  a  man  who  had  no  motive  to  deceive  either  himself  or 
others  ;  of  one  who  had  every  opportunity  of  doing  good,  every 
opportunity  of  knowing  the  truth,  and  yet  with  the  lamp  of  life 
in  his  hands,  only  used  it  to  illuminate  the  broad  road  that  leads 
to  destruction.  And  as  he  is  plunged  down,  down  into  the  bot- 
tomless pit  of  perdition,  methinks  his  very  cry  for  mercy  will  be 
stifled,  when  he  casts  his  eye  upwards  and  beholds  the  long  train 
of  lost  spirits,  once  members  of  his  admiring  flock  on  earth, 
dragged  down  by  his  perverted  influence  to  the  lowest  hell.  Oh 
that  a  merciful  God  would  save  us  from  hell ;  but  if  we  must 
perish,  may  we  at  least  be  saved  from  the  unspeakable  woe  of 
that  man  who  perished  not  alone  in  his  iniquity ! 


XXI  si 

STEWAEDSHIP.* 
"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship." — Luke  xvi.  2. 

The  explanation  of  the  Parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward  has 
been  by  some  commentators  abandoned  in  despair,  they  affirming 
that  a  solution  of  its  difficulties  is  impossible.  That  it  presents 
great  difficulty  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  has  received  innu- 
merable and  most  opposite  interpretations.  A  parable  is  very 
often  a  locked  edifice,  and  its  correct  interpretation  requires  a 
master-key.  As  in  a  great  house  there  may  be  many  doors,  some 
of  which  will  be  unlocked  by  one  key,  while  others  will  not ;  so 
in  the  parable  there  are  many  parts  which  one  theory  of  inter- 
pretation will  explain,  while  there  are  other  parts  that  refuse  to 
yield  any  meaning  whatever.  And  as  in  a  great  house  all  the 
doors  will  open  to  the  touch  of  the  master-key ;  so,  too,  if  we  can 
get  the  master-key  to  the  parable,  all  its  intricacies  become  plain 
as  day. 

Without  wearying  you  with  a  detail  of  all  the  labored  efforts 
of  the  commentators  to  explain  how  our  Lord  could  derive  a 
lesson  of  instruction  from  the  conduct  of  a  dishonest  man,  and 
how  the  lord  of  the  steward  could  commend  him  for  his  dishon- 
esty, I  proceed  at  once  to  put  into  your  hand  the  master-key 
which  will  open  all  the  doors  of  this  long-closed  treasure-house. 

Let  us  first  consider  the  parties.  They  were  "  a  certain  rich 
man,"  his  "  steward,"  who  is  called  "  unjust,"  and  the  "  debtors  " 
of  the  "  rich  man." 

The  man  must  have  been  very  rich  in  order  to  need  a  steward. 
His  wealth  did  not  consist  of  money,  but  of  land — large  farms, 

*  A  New- Year's  sermon. 


STEWARDSHIP.  239 

the  rent  of  whicli  was  paid  in  the  produce  of  the  soil.  The 
large  landed  proprietor  committed  the  management  of  his  estate 
entirely  to  his  steward.  This  steward  farmed  out  the  land  for 
such  price  as  he  thought  fit,  without  every  particular  in  the  con- 
tract being  made  known  to  his  lord.  All  that  the  latter  cared  to 
know  was  the  gross  revenue  which  his  estate  yielded.  Uf)  to  this 
time  the  rich  proprietor  had  not  required  any  accurate  reckoning 
with  his  steward,  until,  informed  of  the  man's  dishonesty,  he 
determined  to  displace  him.  He  had  bestowed  on  him  full  con- 
fidence, and  invested  him  with  plenary  powers  in  the  making  of 
all  contracts  with  the  small  farmers  who  rented  the  land. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  steward.  He  was  accused  to  his  lord 
of  having  "  wasted  his  goods."  It  is  clear  that  he  was  not  accused 
of  such  peculation  as  would  have  enriched  him  ;  for,  in  prospect 
of  his  displacement,  he  contemplates  the  alternative  of  going  to 
work,  or  of  begging,  as  the  means  of  future  support.  No,  the 
man  had  only  lived  extravagantly  and  sumptuously,  and  as  he 
had  no  property  of  his  own,  his  malicious  neighbors,  who  did  not 
fare  so  well  as  he  (just  like  many  people  now,  when  they  see  a 
man  living  better  than  themselves  and  know  not  where  he  gets 
the  means),  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the  steward  was  mis- 
appropriating his  lord's  revenues,  and  so  they  went  and  told  on 
him.  They  concluded,  of  course,  that  he  had  been  wronging  his 
lord,  and,  with  a  great  deal  of  virtuous  indignation,  they  deter- 
mined to  put  a  stop  to  it.  At  this  point  the  lord  is  struck  with 
their  representations,  and  at  once  calls  him  to  account.  He  says : 
"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship."  Bring  me  all  the  bonds 
of  ray  tenants  and  let  me  compare  them  with  the  amounts  which 
you  have  annually  rendered  to  me.  If  the  papers  are  produced 
his  lord  will  be  able  at  a  glance  to  see  whether  the  revenues 
annually  accounted  for  tally  with  the  farm  contracts  for  the  cur- 
rent year.  And  now  at  this  point  we  see  why  he  is  called  an 
"  unjust  steward."  Observe,  if  the  charges  against  him  had  been 
true  he  would  not  have  been  called  unjust,  but  unfaithful ;  his 
breach  of  trust  and  want  of  fidelity  would  not  have  been  thus 
characterized.  But  he  had  not  been  unfaithful  to  his  lord  ;  he 
had  rendered  to  him  every  year  what  was  a  fair  rental  for  his 


240  STEWARDSHIP. 

lands.  His  unjustness  appears  in  that  he  extorted  from  the 
farmers  more  than  he  had  stated  and  paid  to  his  lord.  "  He  de- 
manded of  them  an  excessive  rent,  and  paid  to  him  only  a  fair 
amount,  so  that  the  difference  between  what  he  received  and 
what  he  rendered  constituted  a  clear  gain  to  himself,"  and  ena- 
bled him  to  support  the  style  and  display  which  excited  the  envy 
of  his  poor  neighbors ;  perhaps,  of  these  very  farmers  themselves. 
Hence,  in  casting  about  what  he  shall  do,  he  determined  to  have 
two  strincrs  to  his  bow.  He  will  smooth  over  his  accounts  with 
his  lord  and  prove  to  him  by  written  evidence  that  he  has  never 
wronged  him  ;  that  the  bonds  of  the  farmers  correspond  exactly 
with  the  annual  revenue  rendered  him,  and  which  was,  in  fact, 
an  equitable  revenue  ;  and  he  will  make  fair  weather  with  the 
farmers  themselves  by  an  abatement  of  his  customary  extortion 
from  them.  Hence,  he  calls  the  farmers  together  and  says  to 
each  in  turn,  "  How  much  owest  thou  unto  my  lord  ? "  The  first 
says,  "  A  hundred  measures  of  oil."  Then  said  he,  "  "Well,  I 
have  been  conferring  with  my  lord,  and  he  agrees  with  me  in 
thinking  that  this  is  an  exorbitant  rent,  and  I  have  prevailed  on 
him  to  reduce  it  fifty  per  cent.  I  will  exchange  your  old  note 
of  a  hundred  for  a  new  one  for  fifty."  Well,  you  see,  that 
farmer  went  away,  saj^ng,  "  This  steward  is  a  good,  upright 
man.  I  will  never  fail  to  do  him  a  good  turn,  if  the  time  ever 
comes  when  he  shall  need  it."  He  then  called  a  second,  and 
said,  "  And  how  much  owest  thou  ? "  And  he  said,  "  A  hundred 
measures  of  wheat."  With  the  same  apparent  show  of  modera- 
tion and  uprightness  he  says,  "  I  will  exchange  your  old  note  for 
a  new  one  with  eighty  instead  of  a  hundred."  And  so  he  goes 
through  the  whole  list  of  debtors.  They  all  go  away  applauding 
the  integrity  and  moderation  of  the  steward.  I^one  of  them  will 
join  now  in  defaming  him.  He  has  made  fast  friends  of  them. 
Now  he  comes  to  his  lord  with  all  his  accounts  ready  for  inspec- 
tion, and  no  discrepancy  between  the  amounts  due  from  the  ten- 
ants and  the  amounts  rendered  is  found.  And  now  the  "  lord 
commended  the  unjust  steward."  This  verse  has  always  troubled 
the  commentators ;  for  they  never  could  understand  why  the  rich 
man  would  commend  his  steward  for  doing  that  which,  upon 


STEWARDSHIP.  -     241 

their  theory,  was  only  adding  to  the  wrong  he  had  already  done 
in  wasting  his  goods.  They  have  all  persisted  in  representing 
the  steward  as  unfaithful  to  his  employer,  and  never  seem  to 
have  gotten  the  idea  into  their  heads  that  he  was  unjust  to  the 
debtors,  but  faithful  to  his  lord.  Hence  they  never  could  explain 
the  commendation  which  his  lord  bestowed  upon  him.  But  upon 
the  interpretation  which  I  have  just  given  all  is  clear  as  noonday. 
His  lord  commended  him  because  upon  the  examination  of  the 
papers  he  found  that  he  himself  had  nothing  to  complain  of. 
And  as  long  as  his  own  interests  were  not  compromised  he  was 
not  careful  to  inquire  into  the  wrong  inflicted  on  his  tenants. 
Indeed,  while  he  was  no  doubt  informed  of  it,  he  commended 

the  shrewdness  of  his  steward The  lord  of  this  steward, 

80  far  as  we  know,  retained  him  in  his  service  as  a  wise  and 
shrewd  manager.  He  would  hardly  have  dismissed  him  after 
commending  him  for  his  sagacity. 

In  commenting  upon  this  parable,  our  Lord  says  to  His  disci- 
ples, "  Now,  I  say  unto  you,  make  to  yourselves  friends  of  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness,  that,  when  ye  fail,  they  may  receive 
you  into  everlasting  habitations."  This  verse  also  has  been  a 
great  sturabKng-block.  And  it  is  not  without  its  difficulty.  In 
the  first  place,  the  meaning  is  obscured  by  the  inaccurate  render- 
ing of  a  preposition.  The  translation  ought  not  to  be  "  friends 
of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,"  but  "  friends  hy  means  of 
the  mammon  of  unrighteousness"  {^ide  Winer's  Grammar,  p. 
460,  and  Lange  on  Luke  xvi.  9).  In  the  second  place,  the  Greek 
text  upon  which  the  English  version  is  based  is  generally  con- 
ceded not  to  be  the  true  reading.  Our  version  very  correctly 
translates  "  that  when  ye  fail  they  may  receive,"  etc.  But  the 
best  manuscripts  in  Greek  and  the  New  Yersion  read,  "  that  when 
it  fails,"  i.  €.,  when  the  marnmon  fails,  or  is  exhausted,  etc..  A 
paraphrase  of  the  verse  which  conveys  its  exact  meaning  may  aid 
you  to  understand  it :  "I  say  unto  you,  make  to  yourselves- 
friends  by  means  of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  so  that 
when  this  mammon  is  exhausted,  these  friends  thus  made  may- 
receive  you  into  the  everlasting  tabernacles." 

Having  translated  the  passage,  it  remains  to  be  seen  how  it  is- 


242  STEWARDSHIP. 

to  be  explained.  Does  our  Lord  mean  to  commend  the  unjust 
steward  ?  Does  He  bold  bim  up  for  imitation  ?  I  answer,  He 
does  not  commend  bim  for  bis  conduct  in  so  far  as  it  was  unjust 
toward  the  farmers,  but  He  does  commend  it  at  tbe  point  wbere 
it  began  to  be  just ;  at  tbe  point  wben  be  began  to  make  bis 
friends.  He  in  effect  says :  "  Where  this  steward  ended  do  you 
begin.  He  ended  his  career  by  using  bis  place  and  power,  bis 
control  over  tbe  mammon  which,  up  to  this  time,  he  had  unright- 
eously appropriated  to  bis  owd  selfish  ends — he  ended  liis  career 
by  using  these  things  righteously,  justly,  and  thus  made  a  host 
of  friends.  Do  you  the  same  with  tbe  mammon  which  may  be 
under  your  control.  Use  it  wisely ;  do  not  appropriate  it  to  your 
own  selfish  gratification,  but  act  like  him,  and  make  friends,  who, 
going  before  you  to  heaven,  will  welcome  you,  when  you  get 
there,  with  outstretched  arms.  True,  bis  motive  was  a  bad  one, 
but  bis  conduct  was  wise.  Do  likewise,  only  do  it  with  the  right 
motive.  Use  your  means  not  for  yourself,  but  for  others,  and 
you  shall  reap  the  eternal  reward." 

I  have  thus  explained  this  parable  at  length,  because  I  know 
that  it  is  unintelligible  to  the  vast  majority  of  the  thoughtful 
readers  of  tbe  New  Testament,  and  he  renders  a  great  service  to 
bis  bearers  who  can  succeed  in  clearing  up  for  them  any  of  the 
dark  sayings  of  our  Lord.  I  hope  that  this  parable  will  shine 
with  a  new  light  into  your  souls ;  for  rightly  considered,  especially 
when  taken  in  its  historical  connection,  it  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  examples  of  the  elevated  didactic  wisdom  of  our  Lord. 

Turning  away  from  the  exegetical  consideration  of  this  passage, 
I  wish  to  make  a  homiletical  and  practical  use  of  only  one  part 
of  it.  We  are  entering  now  ujDon  the  work  and  toil  of  a  new 
year.  And  it  seems  especially  appropriate  before  we  launch  out 
upon  it  to  inquire,  what  have  we  done  for  God  ?  And  this  is 
suggested  by  the  text :  "  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship.'''' 
For  it  may  be  tbat  our  Lord,  seeing  we  have  been  unfaithful, 
may  be  saying  :  "  Thou  mayest  no  longer  be  steward." 

When  applied  to  us  tbe  text  assumes  tbat  God  is  tbe  paramount 
owner  of  all  tbat  we  are  and  all  that  we  have  ;  that  in  all  his  ac- 
tivity man  is  called  on  earth  to  be  tbe  steward  of  God ;  tbat  be 


STEWARDSHIP.  243 

is  not  to  live  for  himself  at  all ;  that  as  steward  he  is  placed  in  a 
dependent  position  ;  that  he  is  pledged  to  a  conscientious  faith- 
fulness ;  that  he  will  be  held  to  a  strict  account.  "  Give  an  ac- 
count of  thy  stewardship." 

Against  you  as  God's  steward  on  earth,  there  are  several  accu- 
sations preferred  by  the  world,  by  the  devil,  and  by  your  fellow- 
members  of  the  church,  and  He  who  hears  them  all  will  examine 
them  impartially  and  carefully  to  the  last  one,  and  before  He 
renders  His  decision  He  is  saying  to  you  at  the  opening  of  a 
New-Year's  account,  "  Give  an  account  of  last  year's  stewardship.'* 

Over  what  things  has  God  appointed  you  His  steward  ? 

First.  As  suggested  immediately  by  this  parable.  He  has  made 
you  steward  over  a  certain  amount  of  property,  more  or  less,  as 
the  case  may  be — some  of  you  more,  some  less.  "  It  is  a  striking 
proof  of  the  practical  tendency  of  the  Gospel  morality  that  our 
Saviour  has  regarded  the  use  and  possession  of  earthly  riches  as  a 
eubject  of  sufficient  weight  to  be  particularly  handled  by  Him  in 
a  triad  of  parables  :  viz.,  the  parables  of  the  '  Rich  Fool,'  of  the 
*  Unjust  Steward,'  of  '  Dives  and  Lazarus,'  not  to  reckon  a  num- 
ber of  hints  occurring  here  and  there  in  His  discourses."  How, 
then,  have  we  employed  our  Lord's  money  ?  There  is  often  a 
great  deal  of  vague  declamation  about  giving  all  to  God  and 
exercising  stern  self-denial  and  refraining  from  this  unnecessary 
luxury,  and  from  that  needless  expense ;  and  while  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  truth  in  what  is  said,  the  principle  involved  in  it  all 
would,  if  carried  out  to  its  logical  results,  bring  the  whole  com- 
munity down  to  prison  fare — a  bed  of  straw  and  bread  and  water. 
This  is  not  Scriptural ;  it  is  at  variance  with  the  dictates  of  the 
enlightened  Christian  conscience. 

Let  us  see  how,  as  stewards  of  God,  He  would  have  us  expend 
the  means  He  puts  into  our  hands. 

There  are  three  great  objects  to  which  our  means  ought  to  be 
appropriated  so  as  to  meet  the  Divine  approval.    These  are  : — 

1.  A  certain  proportion  ought  to  be  taken  for  defraying  per- 
sonal and  family  expenses. 

2.  Another  portion  may  be  allowed  to  accumulate  as  capital. 

3.  A  fixed  proportion  ought  to  be  devoted  to  God. 


244  STEWARDSHIP. 

'No  one  doubts  that  the  first  of  these  objects  ought  to  be  at- 
tended to.  Every  one  must  be  housed  and  clothed  and  fed. 
This  dutj  need  not  be  urged  ;  the  danger  is  that  this  duty  be  the 
only  one  attended  to. 

In  regard  to  the  second  there  is  difference  of  opinion.  Some 
fanatics  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  a  Christian  has  no  right  to  acquire 
property.  They  say  it  is  a  distrust  of  God's  providence  and  care 
to  store  up  money  for  the  future  provision  for  themselves  and 
families.  They  support  their  opinions  by  the  wresting  of  such 
Scriptures  as  these  :  "  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
earth";  "Woe  to  him  that  ladeth  himself  with  thick  clay"; 
"  Go  to  now,  ye  rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for  the  miseries  that 
shall  come  upon  you,"  etc.  The  common  sense  of  mankind,  as 
well  as  Scripture  compared  and  interpreted,  is  so  totally  opposed 
to  these  views  that  no  one  carries  them  out  in  practice.  The 
Scriptural  authority  for  this  common-sense  view  is  very  decisive. 
The  meaning  of  the  passages  I  shall  quote  is  that  property  in 
itself  is  a  blessing,  and  only  becomes  a  curse  if  improperly  em- 
ployed :  "  The  hand  of  the  diligent  maketh  rich ";  "  He  that 
gathereth  in  summer  is  a  wise  son  ";  "  The  blessing  of  the  Lord 
maketh  rich,  and  He  addeth  no  sorrow  with  it ";  "  And  the  Lord 
hath  blessed  my  master  Abraham  greatly,  and  he  is  become  great, 
and  He  hath  given  him  flocks  and  herds  and  silver  and  gold "; 
"And  Isaac  sowed  in  that  land,  and  received  in  the  same  year 
one  hundredfold,  and  the  Lord  blessed  him,  and  the  man  waxed 
great  and  went  forward  and  grew  until  he  became  very  great," 
It  would  be  hard  to  prove  against  such  Scriptures  as  these  that 
it  is  a  sin  to  die  rich. 

I  thus  frankly  and  fully  declare  that  the  Scriptures  teach  the 
propriety  and  necessity,  not  only  of  adequately  providing  for 
present  wants  and  comforts,  but  also  of  accumulating  property 
for  commercial  and  useful  purposes  and  for  the  future  wants  of 
ourselves  and  families.  These  apparent  concessions,  some  might 
think,  will  counteract  or  weaken  the  arguments  to  be  used  to 
enforce  the  third  department  of  our  duty  as  stewards  :  viz.,  the 
portion  to  be  allotted  to  the  service  of  God.  Truth  requires  no 
concealment  or  suppression  of  anything.     It  is  our  whole  record 


STEWARDSHIP.  245 

as  stewards  which  is  under  review,  and  we  are  to  remember  that 
the  same  authority  which  says,  "  Honor  the  Lord  with  thy 
substance,"  also  says,  "  But  if  any  provide  not  for  his  own,  and 
especially  for  those  of  his  own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith, 
and  is  worse  than  an  infidel "  (1  Tim.  v.  8). 

The  third  department  of  stewardship,  viz.,  that  part  of  our 
property  to  be  devoted  to  the  service  of  God,  includes  three  divis- 
ions : — 

First.  Almsgiving,  or  charitable  contributions  to  the  poor,  or 
to  benevolent  institutions — such  as  orphanages,  widows'  homes, 
and  so  forth. 

Second.  The  support  of  the  ministry,  both  in  our  country  and 
in  foreign  lands. 

Third.  Free-will  offerings. 

In  regard  to  the  first  of  these  divisions,  the  money  which  we 
give  to  the  poor,  God  has  been  pleased  to  designate  a  loan  to 
Him,  "  He  that  giveth  to  the  poor  lendeth  to  the  Lord." 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  considereth  the  poor ;  the  Lord  will  deliver 
him  in  time  of  trouble." 

But  in  order  that  we  may  perform  this  duty  intelligently,  the 
Holy  Spirit  led  the  Apostle  to  lay  down  a  special  rule. 

"  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every  one  of  you  lay  by 
him  in  store  as  God  hath  prospered  him,  that  there  be  no  gather- 
ings when  I  come."  This  passage  has  been  grievously  misunder- 
stood, and  made  to  teach  the  propriety  of  Sunday-morning  col- 
lections in  church  for  the  support  of  the  Gospel.  Whereas  it 
was  Paul's  direction  to  the  Corinthians  how  to  provide  in  a  special 
emergency  alms  for  the  suffering  saints  in  Jerusalem,  so  as  to 
avoid  taking  up  a  collection  when  he  should  come  to  preach  to 
them.  In  effect  he  says :  "  Do  this  in  order  that  there  be  no 
necessity  for  a  collection  when  I  come." 

Let  us  now  analyze  this  rule  for  almsgiving  :  [a)  "  Let  every 
one  of  you."  This  shows  that  the  duty  of  almsgiving  is  incum- 
bent upon  all,  rich  and  poor,  young  and  old.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  Bible  that  exempts  even  the  poor  from  giving  alms. 

(5)  "  Lay  by  him  in  store."  Literally,  "  Lay  by  him  at  home  " 
{^ejpara  eauto  of  the  original,  being  the  idiomatic  equivalent  of 


246  STEWARDSHIP. 

the  French,  cJiez  moi,  and  the  German,  hei  sich  selbsf).  This 
shows  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  one  to  give  alms  not  simply 
when  he  is  asked  or  when  occasion  arises,  but  to  store  up  before- 
hand a  certain  portion  of  his  gettings,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  give 
liberally  upon  a  sudden  call.  The  advantages  of  this  plan  are  ob- 
vious. Things  done  without  premeditation  are  generally  ill-done. 
So  when  there  has  been  no  deliberate  comparison  of  the  claims 
of  different  objects  and  no  settled  determination  of  what  sum  to 
give,  the  amount  must  be  left  pretty  much  to  chance  or  to  the 
impulse  of  the  moment. 

The  passage  does  not  mean  that  the  proportion  should  be  men- 
tally set  apart,  but  that  it  should  be  actually  set  apart.  Those 
who  are  disinclined  to  keep  written  accounts  should  literally  com- 
ply with  the  rule,  and  have  a  box  appropriated  to  the  keeping  of 
their  alms  separate  from  their  other  moneys. 

A  great  man  and  a  great  scholar,  who  certainly  is  not  averse 
to  the  use  of  the  pen,  told  me  many  years  ago  that  he  kept  in  his 
study  a  little  treasury-box  with  three  apartments — one  marked 
"  Tithes,"  another  "  Free-will  Offerings,"  and  a  third  "  Alms." 
There  was  a  holy  philosophy  in  this.  It  is  much  harder  for  a 
man  to  quiet  his  conscience  after  appropriating  to  himself  actual 
money  once  dedicated  to  God  than  after  making  a  fraudulent 
cross-entry  in  a  ledger. 

But  business  men  and  merchants  who  keep  all  their  money  in 
banks  ought  to  have  openings  in  their  ledgers  in  which  to  credit 
"Alms"  and  "  Tithes"  and  "  Free-will  Offerings,"  each  with  its 
due  proportion  of  "  Profit  and  Loss,"  and  to  credit  each  with  all 
paid  out  to  God  and  the  poor. 

(c)  "  On  the  first  day  of  tlie  week."  There  is  no  phrase  in 
the  Bible  that  has  been  so  grievously  and  mischievously  misinter- 
preted as  this. 

First.  It  has  been  made  the  foundation  of  the  doctrine  that 
collections  should  be  taken  up  every  Sunday.  But  the  Greek 
does  not  read,  "  on  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  but  "on  one  of 
the  Sabbaths."  Paul  was  ordering  a  specific  contribution  for  a 
single  object,  viz.,  the  poor  saints  at  Jerusalem ;  and  he  says 
"  on  one  of  the  Sabbaths  ";  that  is,  some  of  you  on  one  Sabbath 


STEWARDSHIP.  347 

and  some  on  anotlier,  or  each  of  you  on  everj  Sabbath,  if  he 
chooses. 

Secondly.  This  has  been  made  the  foundation  for  the  false 
doctrine  that  the  support  of  the  ministry  and  of  the  church  is  to 
be  derived  from  these  public  contributions,  whereas  the  object 
for  which  the  Apostle  ordered  this  contribution  was  alms. 

But  this  clause  shows  that  the  Sabbath  is  an  appropriate  time 
for  carrjHlng  out  the  injunction  to  "  lay  by  at  home."  It  does 
not  mean  that  it  is  the  proper  day  for  inquiring  how  much  a  man 
has  prospered.  But  it  means  that  it  is  a  religious  act,  appropriate 
to  the  Sabbath,  to  consecrate  to  God's  poor  the  amount  deter- 
mined on  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  week.  The  inference 
from  the  passage  is  that  the  practice  of  storing  up  for  future  dis- 
tribution among  the  poor  should  be  adopted  as  a  person  receives 
his  wages  or  income,  be  it  weekly,  monthly,  quarterly,  or  yearly ; 
and  with  respect  to  those  who  live  by  irregularly  accruing  profits, 
such  as  of  agriculture,  trade,  or  commerce,  this  duty  should  be 
immediately  performed  after  taking  account  of  the  year's  work, 
or  after  making  the  balance-sheet  and  determining  the  debit  of 
"  Profit  and  Loss." 

{d)  "As  God  hath  prospered  him." 

In  this  is  involved  the  idea  of  proportion.  This  is  the  New 
Testament  rule  in  regard  to  alms.  In  this  matter  Christ  has  not 
bound  His  people  down  to  any  limit.  When  He  gives  much  He 
expects  His  people  to  give  more  and  more,  in  proportion  to  the 
growth  of  their  incomes.  Indeed,  if  He  had  laid  down  an  iron 
rule  on  this  point,  it  would  have  been  in  direct  contravention  to 
His  specific  command  that  alms  should  be  given  so  secretly  that 
nobody  should  know  anything  about  the  amount  thus  bestowed. 
But  the  Apostle,  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  the  sermon  of  our 
Lord,  says :  "  In  proportion  as  God  has  prospered  you."  Tou 
know  how  great  has  been  your  prosperity,  and  nobody  has  any 
business  with  your  alms.  That  matter  is  between  you  and  your 
Father  in  heaven.  "  Thy  Father,  which  seeth  in  secret,  Himself 
shall  reward  thee  openly." 

It  is  clear  that  the  whole  passage  teaches  the  duty  of  systematic 
laying  aside  of  your  earnings  at  home,  in  order  that  you  may  be 


248  STEWARDSHIP. 

able  to  contribute  to'tlie  poor  saints  as  often  as  their  necessities 
require,  without  resorting  to  collections  in  the  church  assemblies, 
when  one  would  give  by  impulse,  or  caprice,  or  accident,  or  give 
nothing  at  all. 

Second.  The  second  division  of  rehgious  giving  comprises  the 
portion  of  our  substance  which  we  owe  directly  to  God.  In  this, 
God  claims  of  all  His  people  His  right.  In  giving  to  the  poor, 
He  says,  we  "  lend  to  the  Lord  ";  but  in  withholding  from  Him 
what  He  claims  as  His  right,  we  are  said  to  "  rob  God."  We  do 
not  "  rob  "  by  refusing  a  loan,  but  we  do  rob  when  we  fail  to  pay 
a  debt.  Now,  does  God  in  His  Word  tell  us  precisely  how  much 
He  claims  as  the  portion  He  will  accept  from  His  people  as  His 
share  ?  The  plain  answer  is  that  in  all  ages  of  the  church,  from 
Abraham  to  the  present  moment.  He  has  indicated  that  the  ren- 
dering of  less  than  a  tenth  of  a  man's  income  is  a  robbing  of  God. 
JS^ow,  in  the  Jewish  church  this  tenth  was  devoted  exclusively  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  mmistry  and  the  ordinances  of  God's 
house.  And  Paul,  in  allusion  to  this  provision  for  the  ministry 
under  the  old  economy,  says  :  "  Even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained 
that  they  which  preach  the  Gospel  shall  Hve  of  the  Gospel."  That 
is,  as  under  the  old  economy,  God  prescribed  that  the  ministry,  and 
all  who  aided  them  in  the  service  of  religion  directly,  should  be 
supported  by  the  contribution  of  a  tenth  of  the  income  of  His 
people ;  so  God  expects  the  ministry  of  the  church  and  the  elder- 
ship of  the  church  to  be  supported  now.  You  may  be  startled 
by  the  proposition  that  the  elders  of  a  church  ought  to  receive 
pecuniary  compensation  for  their  church  work,  but  it  is  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Apostle  Paul.  He  says  :  "  Let  the  elders  that  rule 
well  be  counted  worthy  of  double  honor,  for  it  is  written,  '  Thou 
shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  that  treadeth  out  the  corn.'"  All  the 
scholars  agree  that  this  has  reference  to  pecuniary  compensation 
for  the  time  abstracted  from  their  secular  business  in  the  service 
of  the  church. 

I  mention  this,  however,  now,  only  incidentally,  lest  you  should 
think  a  tithe  of  your  incomes  would  be  too  large  a  provision  for 
the  salaries  of  the  ministers  of  the  church. 

There  is  the  greatest  ignorance  among  ministers,  and  great 


STEWARDSHIP.  249 

misapprehension  among  tlie  people  on  the  subject  of  the  Jewish 
tithe.  It  was  not  collected  under  stringent  regulations.  On  the 
contrary  he  might,  and  the  covetous  Jew  did,  often  fail  to 
"  bring "  his  tithe  to  the  storehouse.  If  he  did  not  bring  it 
voluntarily,  there  was  no  compulsory  process  by  which  it  could 
be  wrung  from  him.  It  was  a  matter  which  rested  between  him 
and  his  God.  The  rulers  of  the  people  took  no  cognizance  of 
his  dereliction.  But  God,  whom  he  "  robbed,"  did.  Thus  you 
see  that  what  is  called  the  "  Law  of  the  Tithe,"  was  only  the  rule 
of  proportion  by  which  God  taught  His  people  what  amount  of 
their  yearly  income  He  would  accept  as  a  token  of  their  acknowl- 
edgment of  His  right  to  all  their  possessions.  And  in  the  degen- 
erate days  of  the  church,  when  piety  was  almost  extinct,  and 
when  the  priests  failed  to  teach  the  people  their  duty  in  this 
matter,  God  visited  them  with  drouths  and  all  manner  of  agri- 
cultural disaster,  and  caused  the  priests  to  become  "  contemptible 
and  base  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,"  because  they  had,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Malachi,  "  corrupted  the  covenant  of  Levi ";  that  is, 
because  they  had  relaxed  the  demand  for  the  tithe,  which  was 
"  the  covenant  of  Levi."  In  precisely  the  same  way  the  ministry 
in  our  day,  by  their  failure  to  indoctrinate  the  people  as  to  the 
demand  which  God  makes  upon  them  for  the  support  and  main- 
tenance of  all  His  ministers  and  the  ordinances  of  His  house, 
have,  in  a  manner,  become  "  contemptible  and  base  "  before  all 
the  people.  Instead  of  fearlessly  proclaiming  their  right  to  live 
of  the  Gospel,  they  too  often  stand,  like  beggars,  hat  in  hand, 
entreating  that  they  may  be  permitted  to  starve  on  the  meagre 
pittance  doled  out  to  them  by  a  covetous  and  selfish  people.  And 
hence  it  has  come  to  pass  that  most  people  look  upon  money  paid 
for  the  support  of  the  minister  at  home  or  for  the  missionary  to 
the  heathen  as  a  charity,  instead  of  a  debt  owed  to  God  himself. 

I  wish,  while  on  this  subject,  to  explain  briefly  the  "  free-will 
offering."  It  is  absolutely  distressing,  as  well  as  amusing,  to  hear 
some  people  talk  of  their  "  free-will  offerings." 

A  free-will  offering  was  brought  by  the  pious  Jew  on  a  partic- 
ular emergency  as  a  thank-offering  for  deliverance  from  some 
special  peril,  or  on  the  experience  of  signal  blessing.    It  was 


250  STEWARDSHIP. 

never  appropriated  or  intended  to  supplement  any  deficit  in  the 
support  of  the  priests ;  and  there  was  no  room  for  a  free-will 
offering  on  the  part  of  any  one  who  had  not  brought  his  tithe. 
A  free-will  offering  was  something  over  and  ahove  what  the 
offerer  owed  to  God.  Only  after  all  obligations  were  discharged 
could  one  dare  to  present  a  free-will  offering. 

You  are  now  prepared  to  see  for  yourselves  whether  any  of 
you  could,  if  you  desired,  bring  to  God  a  free-will  offering  in 
acknowledgment  of  His  signal  mercies  to  you  during  the  past 
year.  If  your  givings  to  the  support  of  the  Gospel  in  this  church 
and  in  our  missionary  work  in  foreign  lands  have  not  been  one- 
tenth  of  your  income  in  the  past  year,  you  are  in  no  condition  to 
respond  to  the  loud  call  made  by  the  Committee  of  Sustentation, 
which  you  find  on  a  circular  put  in  your  pews  to-day,  in  a  free- 
will offering.   You  must  be  just  to  God  before  you  can  be  generous. 

Some,  I  know,  have  given  more  than  a  tenth  of  their  gains; 
some  only  a  portion  ;  some  nothing.  The  account  is  between 
all  and  God.  Be  assui-ed  God  has  a  controversy  with  all  who 
have  fallen  short.  God  says  by  Malachi :  "  Ye  are  cursed  with 
a  curse,  for  ye  have  robbed  Me." 

The  present  is  a  favorable  moment  for  God's  people  to  give 
an  account  of  their  stewardships. 

But  how  can  you  give  an  account  of  that  of  which  you  keep 
no  account  ?  If  your  offerings  to  God  have  been  made  simply 
upon  impulse,  or  only  incidentally  when  you  happened  to  be  at 
church,  without  any  systematic  calculation  of  your  resources,  you 
may  be  perfectly  sure  that  you  have  not  given  one-hundredth 
part  of  what  will  be  acceptable  to  God. 

I  therefore  advise  every  one  to  go  home  and  make  up  a  strict 
account  of  his  income  for  the  year  1881 ;  then  a  statement  of  all 
he  has  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  Gospel  in  this  church 
and  in  the  missionary  fields,  and  if  the  amount  falls  below  one- 
tenth  of  the  income,  to  bring  the  difference  to  the  deacons,  to  be 
applied  at  once  by  them  in  raising  the  amount  asked  for  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Missions.  Then  you  will  be  prepared  to  render 
an  account  of  your  stewardship  unto  the  great  "  Lord  "  to  whom 
all  you  have  belongs. 


STEWARDSHIP.  251 

The  adoption  of  this  rule  of  voluntary  tithing  is  recommended 
by  four  considerations. 

First.  It  has  the  sanction  of  Divine  authority. 

Second.  It  was  practiced  by  the  early  church  for  more  than  a 
thousand  years  after  the  Apostles. 

Third.  It  is  the  only  equitable  plan  for  distributing  the  burdens 
of  a  church  according  to  the  abilities  of  the  people. 

Fourth.  It  is  the  certain  condition  of  worldly  jDrosperity.  It 
is  impossible  for  God  to  lie.  He  says  :  "  Honor  the  Lord  with 
thy  substance  and  with  the  first  fruits  of  all  thine  increase ;  so 
shall  thy  barns  be  filled  with  plenty  and  thy  presses  shall  burst 
out  with  new  wine."  "  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  store- 
house, and  prove  me  now  herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  if  I 
will  not  open  the  windows  of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing 
that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it." 

If  the  time  permitted,  I  could  give  you  extracts  from  more 
than  a  hundred  letters,  testifying  in  substance  to  the  fact  that 
God  has  fulfilled  this  promise  in  a  wonderful  manner  to  the 
writers  of  them.  One  of  these  letters  I  have  never  been  able  to 
read  without  tears.  In  the  course  of  it  the  writer  says  :  "  My 
practice  for  years  had  been  to  devote  the  tenth  to  God.  But 
closer  investigation  convinced  me  that  the  tithe  and  free-wiU 
offering  together  claimed  one-third  of  my  income,  and  alms  a 
tenth  of  the  remainder.  And  although  by  reason  of  an  insuffi- 
cient salary  I  am  often  straitened,  yet  a  covenant  God  keeps  me 
up  and  bestows  His  help  in  various  ways.  I  could  not  feel  satis- 
fied to  come  short  of  this,  and  am  often  troubled  by  the  thought 
that  I  came  so  late  to  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  my  duty." 

I  close  this  part  of  this  discussion  with  the  following  extract 
from  an  article  written  by  a  minister  of  our  church  who  has  studied 
this  subject  more  profoundly  than  any  other  man  in  this  country : 

"  The  census  of  1870  discloses  some  amazing  facts. 

Cost  of  dogs  in  the  United  States $10,000,000 

Support  of  criminals 12,000,000 

Fees  of  litigation 35,000,000 

Cost  of  tobacco  and  cigars 610,000,000 

Support  of  grog-shops 1,500,000,000 

Whole  cost  of  ardent  spirits 2,200,000,000 

Salaries  of  all  the  ministers 6,000,000 


252  STEWARDSHIP. 

"  Consider  this  country's  estimate  of  the  Gospel  ministry ;  the 
ministers  of  all  tlie  denominations  grudgingly  supported  on  a 
sum  less  by  $4,000,000  than  the  dogs  of  the  land  !  What  an 
insult  to  the  King  of  kings !  Enough  to  perpetuate  the  curse 
upon  a  God-forsaken  land  ! "  Hear  old  Andrew  Fuller :  "  The 
love  of  money  will,  iu  all  probability,  prove  the  eternal  over- 
throw of  more  characters  among  professing  people  than  any  other 
sin,  because  it  is  almost  the  only  crime  that  can  be  indulged  and 
a  profession  of  religion  at  the  same  time  be  supported."  "  What 
the  Church  of  Christ  most  lacks  is  faith  in  God.  Her  unbelief 
dishonors  God  and  impoverishes  herself.  Were  it  not  for  unbe- 
lief and  covetousness,  what  advances  might  she  not  have  made ! 
Did  her  fidelity  correspond  in  the  lowest  measure  with  the  tran- 
scendent position  she  occupies  and  the  glorious  privileges  she 
possesses ;  did  she  freely  give  as  she  has  freely  received,  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth  which  are  now  full  of  the  habitations  of 
cruelty  would  long  since  have  been  illuminated  by  the  glorious 
sun  of  the  Gospel,  the  conquests  of  divine  truth  would  have  been 
complete,  the  empire  of  Satan  would  be  dismantled  and  over- 
thrown, and  the  glorious  shout  would  now  be  thundering  through 
the  temple  of  God,  Alleluiah  !  The  kingdoms  of  the  earth  are 
become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God." 

But  it  is  not  only  as  the  stewards  of  money  that  God  calls  you 
to  account.  This  is  only  one,  and  by  no  means  the  most  import- 
ant one,  of  the  Master's  goods,  which  many  are  accused  to  Him 
of  wasting. 

There  is  another  talent  which  has  been  committed  to  you  for 
improvement,  and  that  is  your  personal  influence.  There  is  a 
difference  between  this  trust  and  the  preceding  in  this,  that 
while  God  only  claims  ^ar^  of  your  money,  He  demands  that  all 
of  your  influence  shall  be  employed  for  His  glory.  He  demands 
that  every  act  of  your  daily  life  shall  illustrate  the  doctrines  you 
profess.  He  demands  that  nothing  you  do  shall  misrepresent  the 
Lord  Jesus,  whom  He  has  set  before  you,  and  whom  you  profess 
to  have  taken  as  your  example.  Every  part  and  property  of 
your  nature  and  every  moment  of  your  existence  have  been 
bought — paid  for  with  "  precious  blood."     And  as  the  interest 


STEWARDSHIP.  253 

to  which  you  are  pledged  is  opposed  by  every  other,  you  cannot 
yield  to  any  claimant,  even  for  a  moment,  without  lending  your- 
seK  during  that  moment  to  a  hostile  party,  so  that  there  is  no 
alternative  but  this  of  devoting  yourself  exclusively  to  Christ — 
T  your  character  is  to  be  the  reproduction  of  the  character  of 
Christ.  The  disinterestedness  which  appeared  in  Christ,  the 
purity  of  Christ,  the  harmlessness  of  Christ,  the  separation  of 
Christ  from  sinners — all  these  ought  to  reappear  in  your  char- 
acter and  external  conduct,  and  if  tempted  to  lend  but  a  particle 
of  iufluence  to  any  other  claimant  than  Christ,  your  reply  is  at 
hand,  "  I  am  not  my  own,  I  am  Christ's ;  He  has  put  it  out  of 
my  power  to  give  Him  more  than  belongs  to  Him,  for  He  has 
purchased  and  demands  the  whole  through  every  moment  of 
time."  Now  let  us  enumerate  rapidly  the  means  of  influence 
which  all  possess  in  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

Knowledge  is  a  means  of  influence  ;  Scholarship  is  a  means  of 
influence  ;  Scientific  attaimnents  are  a  means  of  influence ;  Pro- 
fessional sJcill  is  a  means  of  influence  ;  Official  position  either  in 
the  State  or  in  the  Church,  or  in  the  University,  is  a  means  of 
influence  ;  Social  position  is  a  means  of  influence  ;  Speech  is  a 
powerful  force  and  a  means  of  influence.  The  most  casual  remark 
lives  forever.  There  is  not  a  word  you  have  uttered  during  the 
past  year  that  has  not  a  moral  history,  and  we  are  specifically 
warn<ed  that  in  the  final  taking  account  of  our  stewardship,  by 
our  words  we  shall  be  justified  or  condemned. 

Relationship^  whether  natural  or  artificial,  is  a  means  of  influ- 
ence— of  parent  to  child,  of  wife  to  husband,  of  sister  to  brother, 
of  teacher  to  pupil.  "  There  is  no  relation  of  life  which  does  not 
invest  the  person  sustaining  it  with  some  degree  of  influence,  and 
which  does  not  afford  him  the  power  of  exerting  an  influence  in 
it  which  no  other  being  on  earth  possesses." 

Self-denial  is  a  means  of  influence.  It  is  a  means  of  influence 
both  directly  and  indirectly.  Directly  it  increases  the  means  of 
benevolence  which  self-indulgence  would  have  lavished  on  itself, 
and  these  by  increasing  usefulness  are  augmenting  influence. 
But  the  influence  which  a  man  acquires  by  this  increase  of  actual 
means  is  as  nothing  compared  with  that  which  he  obtains  by  the 


254  STEWARDSHIP. 

fact  when  it  comes  to  be  known, — that  he  denies  himself  in  order 
to  obtain  it.  The  amount  which  lie  saves  bj  his  self-denial  may 
be  only  an  additional  mite ;  but  the  fact  that  he  habitually  denies 
himself  in  order  to  obtain  it  as  a  means  of  doing  good,  will  ulti- 
mately invest  him  with  a  greater  moral"  influence  than  the  stranger 
to  self-denial,  though  the  giver  of  thousands,  can  ever  possess. 

"  Compassion  is  a  means  of  influence.  And  the  deep  anxiety 
which  the  earnest  Christian  ought  to  feel  and  does  feel  to  snatch 
the  firebrands  from  the  flames  and  quench  them  in  the  blood  of 
the  oross,  imparts  a  depth  of  tenderness  to  his  tones  and  an  energy 
to  his  efforts  which  give  them  a  power  over  the  hard  heart  beyond 
that  of  the  most  original  truths  unfeelingly  spoken,  or  the  stem 
authority  of  law  itself."  Prayer  is  influence.  All  those  other 
things  which  I  have  described  as  means  of  influence  become  spir- 
itually useful  only  by  that  power  which  descends  in  answer  to 
prayer.  Other  means  may  be  influential ;  but  the  amount  of 
their  influence  is  calculable,  bearing  some  proportion  to  the  power 
employed  ;  but  prayer,  by  engaging  a  Divine  power,  sets  all  cal- 
culation at  defiance. 

And  now  the  Lord  and  Master  is  saying  to  you  all,  "  Give  an 
account  of  thy  stewardship  in  the  employment  of  all  these  means 
of  influence  and  usefulness  which  I  have  placed  in  thy  hands." 
How  have  you,  who  have  acquired  influence  over  the  young  men 
of  these  institutions,  by  your  knowledge,  your  scholarship,  your 
scientific  attainments,  your  professional  skill — how  have  you  used 
your  influence  ?  Have  you  hidden  your  light  under  a  bushel  or 
under  a  bed  ?  or  have  you  caused  it  to  shine  upon  them  with 
baleful  fires  ?  Have  you  rendered  tippling  and  drunkenness  re- 
spectable in  their  eyes,  because  they  see  them  associated  with 
high  literary  and  scientific  attainments  ? 

How  have  you  that  occupy  official  position  in  the  State  used 
your  influence  derived  from  such  position  ?  How  have  you  who 
are  conspicuous  members  in  the  Church  of  God  used  the  influence 
which  your  elevation  above  the  ordinary  members  of  the  church 
has  given  you  ?  The  Lord  of  the  unjust  steward  said,  How  is 
it  that  I  hear  this  of  thee  ?  And  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  and 
Master  I  repeat  the  question,  How  is  it  that  I  hear  this  of  thee, 


STEWARDSHIP.  255 

that  you  frequent  bar-rooms,  and  drink  whiskey,  just  like  men 
who  have  not  the  fear  of  God  before  their  eyes  ? 

"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship,"  ye  that  have  social  posi- 
tion, ye  that  have  the  power  of  speech,  ye  that  have  money,  ye 
that  have  heard  the  oft-repeated  injunction,  Deny  thyself  and 
take  thy  cross,  ye  that  have  had  unbarred  access  to  a  throne  of 
grace,  if  ye  would  only  choose  to  go  there.  "  Give  an  account 
of  thy  stewardship."  "  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship," 
all  ye  that  have  named  the  name  of  Christ  and  are  therefore 
expected  to  depart  from  all  iniquity.  Have  ye,  as  in  duty  bound, 
avoided  all  appearance  of  evil,  even  when  there  might  have  been 
no  real  evil  in  all  your  conduct  ?  Have  ye  given  no  occasion  to 
the  enemies  of  the  Lord  to  blaspheme  ?  Have  ye  given  no  occa- 
sion for  the  vulgar  sneer,  and  the  ribald  jest  at  the  "  elect "  of 
God,  in  countenancing  by  your  presence  a  scene  of  excess  and 
unwarrantable  hilarity  ?  "  How  is  it  that  I  hear  this  of  thee," 
that  ye  have  been  eating  meat  offered  to  idols  ?  Do  ye  not  see 
(if  it  is  all  true)  that  in  these  concessions  which  you  may  have 
made  to  the  spirit  of  the  world,  and  of  good  fellowship,  that  you 
have  been  casting  your  pearls  before  swine  /  and  what  can  you 
expect  but  that  they  shall  turn  again  and  rend  you  ? 

What  husbandman  would  not  be  discouraged  in  his  work  if,  as 
fast  as  he  sowed  a  field  in  corn  and  the  good  seed  had  begun  to 
sprout,  one-half  of  his  laborers  should  go  into  the  field  by  night 
and  pluck  up  the  expanding  germ  and  sow  tares  in  its  place? 
And  yet  this  is  no  unfair  representation  of  the  case  of  many  a 
minister  of  the  Gospel.  One  day  in  seven,  he  plants  the  good 
seed  of  the  Word,  and  warns  men  against  covetousness,  against 
drunkenness,  against  worldly  conformity,  against  all  ungodliness, 
and  the  other  six  days,  many  of  those  whose  lives  ought  to  be 
the  living  exemplification  of  his  teachings,  are  engaged  in  nulli- 
fying all  his  teachings  by  lives  of  covetousness,  intemperance, 
worldly  conformity,  and  practical  godlessness.  "  How  is  it  that 
I  hear  this  of  thee  ? " 

"  Give  cm  account  of  thy  stewardship."  What  if  in  view  of 
your  neglect  of  these  things  and  of  your  failure  to  use  righteously 
the  Mammon  over  which  God  has  given  you  control,  He  should 


256  STEWARDSHIP. 

Bay,  "  Thou  mayest  no  longer  be  steward  ! "  The  solemn  reck- 
oning cannot  be  evaded  at  the  last,  when  the  stewardship  of  the 
whole  hfe  is  to  be  accounted  for. 

Some  merchants  make  a  "  trial  balance  sheet "  every  month  in 
order  that  they  may  know  their  financial  condition  all  through 
the  year.  The  reckoning  to  which  I  invite  you  resembles  these 
"  trial  balances."  When  life  is  ended,  it  will  be  too  late  to  cor- 
rect errors.  There  will  be  no  room  on  the  page  for  "  E.  E." 
But  now,  before  the  final  account  is  rendered,  you  have  the  op- 
portunity of  reviewing  and  correcting  the  past.  If,  in  looking 
back  over  the  year  just  ended,  you  find  in  regard  to  disbursing 
your  Lord's  money  that  you  have  been  criminal,  now  is  the  time 
to  begin  to  do  better. 

Renew  your  consecration  to  Him  ;  and  then  you  will  not  "  lie 
to  the  Holy  Ghost "  when  you  sing  : 

"  Were  the  whole  realm  of  nature  mine, 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small ; 
Love  so  amazing,  so  divine, 
Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all." 


XXII. 

consolatio:n". 

"And  the  cup  was  found  in  Benjamin's  sack." — Genesis  xliv.  12. 

The  story  of  Joseph  in  Egypt,  as  recorded  from  the  forty- 
second  to  the  forty-ninth  chapters  of  Genesis,  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  and  touching  narratives  in  all  literature.  Let  me  recall 
as  much  of  it  as  will  enable  you  to  see  the  bearing  of  the  text. 

There  being  famine  all  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  the  aged 
Jacob  sent  his  ten  sons  down  into  Egypt  to  buy  corn.  Joseph, 
who  many  years  before  had  been  sold  into  slavery  in  Egypt  by 
these  very  young  men,  was  now  in  authority  ;  and  after  selling 
them  the  corn,  kept  one  of  the  young  men  in  prison,  but  prom- 
ised to  release  him,  if  upon  their  return  to  procure  another  supply 
they  would  bring  their  youngest  brother,  Benjamin,  with  them. 
This  they  did,  although  it  nearly  broke  Jacob's  heart  to  sujffer  the 
lad,  who  was  very  dear  to  him,  to  go  with  them.  For  after 
Joseph  had  been  sold  into  Egypt,  the  affection  which  Jacob  had 
for  him  was  transferred  to  his  brother  Benjamin.  Upon  their 
return  to  Egypt,  they  were  royally  entertained  by  Joseph  ;  and 
then  dismissed  with  their  sacks  full  of  corn,  and  the  purchase- 
money  secretly  deposited  in  their  sacks'  mouths  Joseph  also 
instructed  his  steward  in  like  manner  to  put  his  silver  cup  in  the 
mouth  of  Benjamin's  sack. 

The  next  day  dawned  auspiciously,  and  full  of  high  spirits  on 
account  of  the  happy  termination  of  their  expedition,  they  turned 
their  faces  homeward.  Everything  had  turned  out  well.  They 
had  been  graciously  received  ;  had  been  honored  with  a  sumptu- 
ous banquet ;  their  brother  Simeon  had  been  restored  to  them, 
and  their  fear  of  being  obliged  to  go  home  without  corn,  cam- 

(257) 


258  CONSOLATION. 

pletely  dispelled  by  knowing  that  their  sacks  were  full.  And 
now  the  obelisks  of  Egypt  were  disappearing  behind  them,  and 
the  pyramids  were  sinking  in  the  distance.  Congratulating  each 
other  on  their  happy  escape  from  the  distress  into  which  they 
had  been  placed  by  the  demand  which  Joseph  had  made  about 
Benjamin,  they  were  full  of  exuberant  joy. 

But  as  they  look  back  over  their  shoulders,  lo  !  a  cloud  of  dust 
and  a  band  of  pursuing  horsemen  !  They  are  overtaken,  are 
commanded  to  halt,  but  although  alarmed,  their  fears  are  quieted 
by  recognizing  in  the  captain  of  the  pursuing  band  no  other  than 
Joseph's  steward — the  man  who  the  day  before  had  treated  them 
with  the  highest  consideration.  But  his  countenance  is  severe. 
He  at  once  charges  them  with  robbing  his  master.  They  indig- 
nantly deny  the  charge.  They  denounce  such  ingratitude.  They 
remind  him  of  all  their  previous  honest  dealing — their  bringing 
back  the  money  for  the  first  purchase,  which  they  supposed  had 
accidentally  been  taken  away. 

"  The  matter  may  be  easily  settled,"  say  they.  "  Search  us 
and  search  our  sacks.  With  whomsoever  of  thy  servants  the  cup 
is  found,  both  let  him  die,  and  we  also  will  be  my  Lord's  bonds- 
men." Secure  in  conscious  rectitude,  "  they  speedily  took  down 
every  man  his  sack  to  the  ground.  And  he  searched  and  began 
at  the  eldest,  and  left  at  the  youngest ;  and  the  cup  was  found  in 
Benjamin's  sack." 

Utterly  overwhelmed,  they  go  back  to  the  city,  silent,  down- 
cast, despairing,  each  one  asking  himself,  How  did  this  cup  get 
into  our  baggage  at  all  and  why  was  it  put  into  Benjamin's  sack  ? 

There  are  few  of  us  who  have  not  been  called  more  than  once 
to  pass  through  just  such  a  trial  as  this.  We  have  often  said, 
Why  in  Benjamin's  sack  *  A  railroad  accident  occurs,  and  while 
hundreds  have  escaped,  our  darling  child  is  among  the  dead.  A 
groat  shipwreck  happens,  and  our  loved  one  is  among  the  lost. 
A  tornado  sweeps  over  the  town,  and  our  dwelling  is  demolished. 
There  is  a  great  bank  robbery  and  the  thieves  have  gotten  our 
package  of  bonds. 

Two  questions  occur  to  every  thoughtful  mind  in  connection 
with  the  subject  of  human  experience.     Why  is  it  that  every- 


CONSOLATION.  25^ 

body  is  sooner  or  later  in  life  called  to  pass  through  a  fiery  fur- 
nace of  affliction  ?  And  why,  when  God  smites  us,  does  He 
always  strike  the  tenderest  spot  ? 

I.  That  there  is  a  vast  amount  of  sorrow  in  the  world,  every- 
body knows.  The  crowds  that  gather  on  festivals,  or  that  congre- 
gate in  theatres  or  opera-houses,  or  that  flock  to  the  hilltops  on  a 
summer's  evening,  seem  to  be  happy,  because  they  wear  smiling 
faces ;  but  these  are  their  society  faces.  Let  the  excitement  of 
the  moment  subside,  and  shadows  darken  them.  There  is  a  skel- 
eton in  the  closet  at  home. 

A  wayward  son,  a  dissipated  husband ;  a  faithless,  jealous,  or 
undutif ul  wife ;  a  recreant  lover,  disappointed  hopes,  buried  loves, 
defeated  schemes  of  ambition,  bodily  pains,  chronic  ill-health, 
nervous  prostration,  and  ten  thousand  causes  of  sorrow  are  pres- 
ent in  one  or  another  form  in  all  our  houses. 

Those  religious  teachers  who  tell  you  that  God  designed  you 
to  be  happy ;  that  you  must  look  at  the  bright  side  of  things,  and 
not  suffer  yourself  to  be  overwhelmed  by  these  evils,  prove  by 
their  shallow  consolations  that  they  have  not  solved  the  mysteries 
of  human  life.  It  affords  me  very  little  comfort  to  know  that 
the  nerves  of  my  body  are  adapted  to  give  me  pleasure,  while  I 
am  racked  with  neuralgia  and  tortured  with  toothache. 

But  some  will  tell  you  that  the  ills  of  life  are  not  half  so  nu- 
merous as  its  joys  ;  that,  on  the  whole,  the  happiness  outweighs 
the  misery  ;  that  pain  is  only  incidental ;  that  pleasure  could  not 
be  appreciated  without  pain  as  a  foil  to  set  it  off  ;  that  blessings 
in  order  to  brighten  must  sometimes  take  their  flight.  It  may 
do  for  the  philosopher  to  account  for  the  existence  of  sorrow  by 
this  explanation,  but  the  sufferer  himself  will  not  receive  it. 

Then,  again,  they  will  tell  you  that  suffering  is  accidental ;  that 
in  the  constitution  of  the  universe  the  benevolent  Creator  did  not 
intend  or  expect  His  children  to  be  afflicted.  This  is  the  most 
absurd  of  all  the  hypotheses  I  have  noticed.  It  ascribes  to  God 
boundless  benevolence,  but  limited  intelligence  and  power.  If 
anything  can  be  demonstrated,  it  is  that  the  sorrows  we  experience 
are  not  accidental,  but  designed  by  Him  whose  kingdom  ruleth 


260  CONSOLATION. 

over  all.    That  silver  cup  of  Joseph  did  not  fall  into  the  sack  ; 
it  was  put  there. 

We  need  not  stop  here  to  inquire  into  Joseph's  motives  for 
doing  this.  Perhaps  it  was  to  try  the  faith,  loyalty,  and  love  of 
his  brethren  for  their  father.  And  Jesus  puts  the  sorrow  into 
our  hearts,  to  try  our  faith,  loyalty,  and  love  for  our  Father. 
Let  us  endeavor  to  unravel  this  tangled  mystery  of  pain  a  httle 
further. 

{a).  We  know  in  regard  to  many  forms  of  pain  that  its  design 
is  beneficent.  It  is  sent  in  order  to  prevent  greater  suffering. 
Like  the  thorns  on  the  rosebush,  which  prevent  our  grasping  the 
flower  too  hastily,  so  pain  warns  us  against  the  too  eager  pursuit  of 
forbidden  pleasures.  It  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  conceive  of 
the  excesses  into  which  human  nature  would  plunge,  were  it  not 
for  the  restraining  influence  of  pain.  Suppose  that  wrong-doing 
were  not  checked  by  remorse,  or  that  sins  against  our  body  were 
not  followed  by  disease  in  the  body,  or  that  crimes  in  violation 
of  social  order  were  not  followed  by  penalties — why,  the  whole 
world  would  become  a  vast  pandemonium.  It  is  because  the  fir»i 
burned  him,  that  "  the  burnt  child  dreads  the  fire."  The  pain , 
therefore,  was  beneficent  in  its  effect  on  him.  The  retribution** 
of  nature  in  the  production  of  sorrow  are  salutary  lessons  to  thos»^ 
who  heed  them. 

(5).  Human  suffering  gives  occasion  to  those  who  look  on  it, 
for  the  exercise  of  virtues  that  otherwise  would  be  impossible. 
How  could  you  find  occasion  for  the  grace  of  benevolence,  if 
there  were  no  widows,  and  orphans,  and  destitute  ?  or  of  sym- 
pathy, if  there  were  no  bereaved  ?  or  of  tenderness  and  gentle- 
ness, if  there  were  no  "  sick  and  in  prison  "  to  whom  you  might 
minister  ?  Son,  daughter  of  affliction,  be  of  good  cheer.  Not 
for  ourselves  are  we  always  smitten.  By  the  blow  upon  you, 
God  may  be  doing  more  unto  others  than  you  can  ask  or  think. 

(c).  But  this  of  itself  would  be  a  poor  apology  for  suffering,  if 
the  lesson  were  taught  only  for  the  benefit  of  the  spectator.  We 
shrink  with  instinctive  horror  from  the  cruelty  of  the  ancient 
sculptor  who  gloated  over  the  dying  agonies  of  a  tortured  crim- 
inal, because  they  afforded  him  a  lesson  in  depicting  the  contor- 


CONSOLATION.  261 

tions  produced  by  mortal  pain.  This  may  have  been  a  valuable 
contribution  to  art,  and  a  spectacle  quite  improving  to  the  skill 
of  the  artist, — ^but  how  about  the  poor  malefactor  ?  Here  is  the 
explanation  :  "  The  suffering  that  tends  to  beautify  another  Hfe 
with  graces,  tends  also  to  bless  the  sufferer  with  piety."  What 
occasion  would  he  ever  have  for  resignation,  submission,  faith  in 
God,  if  God  never  crossed  his  will,  nor  smote  him  with  His  rod, 
nor  plunged  him  into  the  depths  of  dark,  inscrutable  providences  ? 

(d).  All  this,  however,  does  not  serve  to  explain  satisfactorily 
the  mystery  of  human  sorrow.  It  shocks  our  sense  of  justice  to 
admit  for  a  moment  that  the  beneficent  and  loving  Father  inflicts 
suffering  upon  His  creatures  for  the  sake  of  attaining  such  ends. 
If  they  are  indeed  the  results  of  sorrow,  they  must  be  regarded 
as  incidental  and  subsidiary ;  and  not  as  the  final  cause.  The 
real  formal  cause  of  all  sorrow  is  sm.  It  would  be  wrong  to  in- 
flict suffering  on  an  innocent  being. 

No  human  authority  would  do  this,  even  for  the  man's  own 
good.  And  God  does  not  do  it.  He  does  not  send  pain  and 
death  to  any  innocent  human  being. 

The  pangs  of  infancy  are  no  exception  to  this  universal  propo- 
sition ;  for  although  young  infants  are  sinless,  they  are  not  guilt- 
less. They  have  a  corrupt  nature  ;  and,  on  account  of  the  sin  of 
our  first  parents  imputed  to  them,  share  a  heritage  of  pain.  The 
sufferings  of  the  Holy  Son  of  God  constitute  no  exception  to  the 
proposition.  For,  while  He  was  personally  without  sin.  He  was 
accounted,  by  the  imputation  of  our  sins  to  Him,  the  most  guilty 
being  in  the  universe.  "  He  who  knew  no  sin  was  made  sin  for 
us." 

Only  upon  this  ground  can  God  be  justified  in  the  infliction  of 
those  untold  agonies  upon  His  well-beloved  Son.  Here,  then,  in 
human  sin,  we  have,  in  general,  the  only  satisfactory  explanation 
of  human  sorrow. 

II.  Why  does  God  smite  us  in  the  most  sensitive  part  ?  Why 
did  Joseph  put  the  cup  in  Benjamin's  sack  ?  If  it  had  been 
Simeon's  or  Judah's,  it  would  not  have  been  so  hard  to  bear. 
But  Benjamin  !    Leave  him  in  Egypt  1     Go  home  without  him, 


262  CONSOLATION. 

and  bring  down  the  gray  liairs  of  our  father  in  sorrow  to  the 
grave!  Did  we  not  tell  the  man,  "The  lad  cannot  leave  his 
father,  for  if  he  should  leave  his  father,  his  father  would  die  "  ? 
And  now,  that  which  we  most  feared  has  come  upon  us.  Benja- 
min, in  whom  our  father's  life  is  bound  up,  Benjamin  must  be 
left  a  prisoner  in  Egypt ! 

Just  so,  many  of  you  have  often  felt ;  and  you  have  moaned 
under  the  smiting  of  God's  hand.  "  Take  everything  else— my 
houses,  my  lauds,  my  friends,  my  other  children,  but  oh !  my 
Benjamin !  I  cannot  live  without  him.  Why  was  the  cup  put 
into  the  sack  of  my  Benjamin  ? "  I  answer,  just  because  it  is 
Benjainin^s.  Sorrow  is  the  medicine  with  which  God  cures  tho 
spiritual  maladies  of  His  children.  If  the  cup  had  been  put  into 
some  other  sack,  you  would  not  have  felt  the  pain  which  is  de- 
signed to  do  you  good.  God  rarely  gives  sugar-coated  pills. 
The  medicine  He  administers  is  usually  bitter. 

The  confession  which  Judah  made,  "  God  hath  found  out  the 
iniquity  of  thy  servants,"  and  his  previous  distress,  show  that 
these  troubles  came  upon  them  in  order  that  their  sin  in  selhng 
Joseph  might  be  brought  to  their  remembrance.  This  is  always 
the  effect  of  afflictions. 

You  have  committed  some  great  sin,  and  for  a  long  time  it 
troubled  you  ;  but  gradually,  the  remembrance  of  it  faded  out  of 
your  mind.  And  you  have  never  gone  with  it  to  God  to  confess 
it,  and  obtain  the  assurance  of  forgiveness.  Suddenly  you  dis- 
cover that  God  has  a  controversy  with  you.  God  brings  your 
sin  to  remembrance  by  one  stroke  of  His  providence  ;  and  then 
you  are  brought  to  repentance. 

Or  again,  you  have  been  uniformly  prosperous ;  you  have  all 
that  heart  can  wish  ;  and  you  love  the  world  and  the  things  of 
the  world.  You  have  forsaken  the  fountain  of  living  waters,  and 
sought  to  slake  your  thirst  at  other  streams.  God  dries  them  up 
in  order  to  bring  you  back  to  Himself.  Or  you  have  set  up  some 
one  object  of  idolatrous  worship.  God  dashes  it  from  its  pedestal, 
that  your  heart  may  be  wholly  set  on  Him.  Or  you  have  been 
trying  to  serve  two  masters ;  you  have  been  living  partly  for 
earth  and  partly  for  Heaven  ;   and  this  divided  allegiance  has 


CONSOLATION.  263 

been  the  occasion  of  your  present  grief.  Begin  to  live  wholly 
for  Christ. 

There  is  still  another  aspect  in  which  we  are  to  look  at  this 
matter.  It  is  very  certain  that  notwithstanding  the  keen  sorrow 
which  Joseph  inflicted  on  his  brethren  by  the  stratagem  he  de- 
vised, his  heart  was  yearning  toward  them  with  an  inextinguish- 
able love.  His  purpose  at  the  time,  although  concealed  from 
them,  was  to  bring  tliem  all  into  Egypt  and  save  them  from  the 
thick-crowding  calamities  which  threatened  them  in  Canaan. 
When  Jacob  cried  out,  "All  these  things  are  against  me,"  and 
when  in  theu'  profound  consternation  at  the  circumstantial  evi- 
dence which  convicted  them  of  robbery,  they  rent  their  clothes, 
he  did  not  dream,  they  did  not  know,  that  all  their  apparent  ills 
were  really  straightforward  steps  to  a  career  of  prosperity  and 
honor. 

Thus,  thus  it  is  with  us.     In  all  His  dealings  with  us, 

"  God  moves  in  a  mysterious  way 
His  wonders  to  perform." 

Though  we  cannot  comprehend  how  it  is,  yet  He  assures  us  that 
"  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God,  to 
them  who  are  the  called  according  to  His  purpose."  It  is  with 
this  precious  panacea  for  all  the  woes  of  life  that  God  equips  all 
His  ministers  when  He  says  to  them,  "  Comfort  ye,  comfort  ye 
my  people."  "  How  am  I  dumb  in  the  presence  of  the  wailings 
and  complaints  of  the  broken-hearted  without  this  !  How  can  I 
face  this  David,  as  he  comes  wringing  his  hands  and  crying  in 
his  agony,  '  Oh !  Absalom  !  my  son,  my  son  !  Would  God  I 
had  died  for  thee.'  What  can  I  say  to  this  poor  Rachel,  weeping 
for  her  children  and  refusing  to  be  comforted,  unless  I  inay  say 
to  them  :  '  This  affliction  cometh  not  by  chance — it  comes  as  the 
outworking  of  His  adorable  purpose  who  worketh  all  things  to- 
gether for  good  to  them  that  love  Him  ! '  " 

Again,  it  is  evident  from  the  sequel,  that  it  was  Joseph's  plan 
to  recall  his  brethren  in  order  to  make  himself  known  to  them. 
He  might  have  adopted  some  other  method.  But  he  did  not 
choose  to  do  it.     So  Jesus  wants  us  to  become  acquainted  with 


264  CONSOLATION. 

Him,  and  it  is  His  plan  to  bring  this  to  pass  through  the  medium 
of  sorrow.  We  are  so  busy  in  our  chase  after  the  butterflies  of 
the  world,  that  He  maims  us,  so  that  we  may  stop  in  our  hurried 
pursuit  of  them,  and  sit  down  awhile  and  talk  with  Him,  Many 
a  man  has  never  seen  the  Son  of  God,  till  he  finds  Him  walking 
by  his  side  in  the  furnace  of  affliction. 

Lastly.  Joseph  longed  to  gather  his  loved  ones  around  him, 
that  they  might  share  his  good  fortune  and  see  his  honor.  And 
80  Jesus  wants  to  fill  heaven  with  His  friends.  "  Father,  I  Avill 
that  they  also,  whom  Thou  hast  given  me,  be  with  me  where  I 
am  ;  that  they  may  behold  my  glory."  Oh  !  is  it  not  enough  to 
console  us  amid  all  the  sorrows  of  our  troubled  Hfe  to  know,  that 
the  whole  course  of  our  discipline  here  is  intended  to  prepare  us 
for  the  full  enjoyment  of  the  society  of  Jesus  there  ?  To  know 
that  He  will  never  see  of  the  travail  of  His  soul  and  be  fully 
satisfied  until  He  shall  gather  all  His  redeemed  ones  around  Him 
in  heaven  ?  If  "  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation  was  made  perfect 
through  sufferings,"  and  "  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him, 
endm-ed  the  cross,  despising  the  shame,"  surely  we  can  cheerfully 
submit  to  the  conditions  of  our  future  elevation  to  a  place  by  His 
side,  knowing  that  "  if  we  suffer  with  Him,  we  shall  also  reign 
with  Him."  * 

*  This  was  the  last  sermon  Mr.  Pratt  ever  preached. 


XXIII. 

EESUKKECTION'. 
"  The  Power  of  His  Resurrection." — Phil.  iii.  10 

"  The  resurrection  of  Christ  is  the  most  important  and  the  best 
authenticated  fact  in  the  history  of  the  world."  Paul  says  that  he 
counted  all  things  but  loss,  and  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  that 
he  might  know  the  "  power  of  Christ's  resurrection." 

What  is  this  "  power  of  His  resurrection  "  that  is  an  object  of 
such  intense  and  eager  curiosity  ?  The  Apostle  does  not  mean 
by  this  expression,  the  power  by  means  of  which  Christ's  resur- 
rection was  effected ;  that  we  know  was  the  mighty  power  of 
God,  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  But  he  has  reference  to 
the  resurrection  itself  as  a  source  of  power.  He  means  the  force 
which  the  resurrection  exerts  since  it  occurred. 

Now  one  mode  of  attaining  a  conception  of  the  power  of  any 
force,  either  moral  or  physical,  is  to  picture  what  would  have 
been  the  state  of  the  sphere  in  which  it  has  operated,  if  that  force 
had  never  existed.  For  example,  in  order  to  gain  an  idea  of  the 
power  of  the  sun,  we  imagine  what  would  be  the  condition  of 
this  earth  if  the  sun  had  never  shone,  or  should  cease  to  shine. 

In  like  manner  we  may  form  some  conception  of  the  "  power 
of  His  resurrection "  if  we  consider  what  would  have  been  the 
condition  of  the  world  if  Christ  had  remained  in  the  tomb  of 
Joseph  and  never  risen  in  His  body  from  the  grave. 

If  Christ  had  not  risen  from  the  dead,  the  Gospel  would  have 
been  proved  false ;  the  whole  of  His  life,  all  His  miracles,  all  His 
doctrines,  all  His  promises,  all  His  threatenings  would  have  been 
a  palpable  and  notorious  imposture  and  delusion.  All  the  proph- 
ecies, all  the  Psalms,  all  the  Old  Testament  types  and  symbols 
and  sacrifices  would  have  been  proved  to  be  a  tissue  of  cunningly 

(265) 


266  RESURRECTION. 

devised  fables ;  His  claim  to  being  the  Divine  Son  of  God  would 
have  been  exploded  as  a  falsehood ;  "  the  whole  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion would  have  been  a  failure ;  and  all  the  predictions  and  antic- 
ipations of  its  glorious  results  in  time  and  in  eternity,  for  men 
and  for  angels  of  every  rank  and  order,  would  have  been  proved 
to  be  chimeras."  It  is  almost  impossible  to  conceive  of  all  the 
consequences  which  would  have  followed  His  failure  to  rise  from 
the  dead.  There  could  have  been  no  Christian  Church  ;  for  its 
existence  is  based  upon  the  continued  life  of  an  incarnate  Saviour : 
there  could  have  been  no  Bible  ;  for  the  whole  Old  Testament 
would  have  been  demonstrably  false  :  and  the  New  Testament 
would  never  have  been  written.  Men  would  live  and  die  without 
hope  ;  for  they  would  have  no  Saviour.  The  hopes  which  a  liv- 
ing Jesus  had  kindled  in  the  bosoms  of  those  who  looked  for  a 
Messiah  would  have  been  extinguished  in  the  tomb  of  a  dead 
Jesus,  who  had  not  the  strength  to  burst  the  prison  bars  of  His 
grave.  Universal  skepticism  must  have  engulphed  the  universal 
mind  of  the  race.  All  that  had  been  received  as  true  for  ages 
would  have  been  proved  a  fable ;  for  the  whole  revelation  of 
God,  from  Moses  to  John  the  Baptist,  pointed  to  Jesus  as  Him 
who  was  to  save  mankind  by  His  death  a7id  resurrection  ;  and  if 
His  resurrection  failed,  His  death  was  the  death  of  a  man,  and 
not  of  a  great  God  and  Saviour.  His  life  of  beneficence  and 
holiness.  His  death  of  agony  and  shame,  so  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, would  have  no  more  significance  and  value  than  the  life 
and  death  of  Socrates,  unless  they  were  followed  by  His  triumph 
over  death,  to  prove  that  a  greater  than  Socrates  had  been  cruci- 
fied. Tliis  resurrection  of  Christ  was  thus  the  keystone  in  the 
arch  of  the  plan  of  Redemption.  Had  it  been  a-wanting,  the 
whole  structure  must  have  tumbled  into  a  heap  of  shapeless  and 
unreconstructible  ruins.* 

"  St.  Paul,  writing  to  a  Gentile  Church,  expressly  makes  Chris- 
tianity answer  with  its  life  for  the  literal  truth  of  the  Resurrec- 
tion :  '  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain,  and 
your  faith  is  also  vain.     Then  they  also  which  are  fallen  asleep  in 

*  Hodge. 


RESURRECTION.  267 

Christ  are  perished.'  Our  Lord's  honor  and  credit  were  staked 
upon  the  issue,  since  He  had  foretold  His  resurrection  as  the  sign 
which  would  justify  all  the  claims  He  had  set  up  during  His  hfe." 
For  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  said,  We  would  see  a  sign  from 
Thee,  and  He  said  that  He  would  give  them  no  other  sign  than 
this  :  "  As  Jonas  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  the  whale's 
belly,  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  three  days  and  three  nights  in 
the  heart  of  the  earth."  The  stupendous  truth  that  Jesus,  after 
predicting  that  He  would  be  put  to  a  violent  death  and  then  rise 
from  the  dead,  did  actually  so  rise,  forces  every  man  to  accept 
the  whole  of  Christianity  as  true.  The  Resurrection  has  all  the 
force  of  an  a  fortiori  argument.  The  proof  of  this  as  a  historical 
fact,  of  necessity  demonstrates  the  truth  of  the  whole  Gospel  his- 
tory. And  it  is  because  its  proof  is  essential  to  the  establishment 
of  Christianity  that  God,  in  His  providence,  has  so  authenticated 
it  that  the  man  who  doubts  it  is  a  fool  or  worse  than  a  fool.  If, 
then,  Christ  did  rise  from  the  dead.  He  is  the  Son  of  God,  equal 
with  the  Father,  ''^God  manifest  in  tliejieshP 

Having  thus  seen  the  power  of  His  resurrection  by  glancing 
at  what  would  have  been  the  condition  of  the  world  without  it,  let 
us  look  more  directly  at  the  effects  which  the  Scriptures  ascribe 
to  it. 

I.  The  power  of  the  resurrection  in  quickening  our  souls 
is  asserted  by  Paul  in  the  2d  chap,  of  Ephesians,  ver.  5  :  "  Even 
when  we  were  dead  in  sins,  God  hath  quickened  us  together  with 
Christ."  This  does  not  refer  simply  to  the  impartation  to  us  of 
spiritual  life ;  this  was  given  to  us  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in  regen- 
eration. Spiritual  life  was  received  by  believers  long  before 
Christ  came  in  the  flesh,  and  hence  before  His  resurrection. 
The  quickening,  therefore,  to  which  the  Apostle  refers,  is  some- 
thing different  from  this.  He  does  not  mean  that  our  souls  are 
quickened  as  His  body  was : — that  there  is  an  analogy  between 
His  resurrection  from  the  grave  and  our  spiritual  resurrection ; 
but  the  truth  here  taught  is  the  same  as  that  taught  in  such  pass- 
ages as  these:  Rom.  vi.  6,  8,  "  Our  old  man  is  crucified  with 
Him :  Now  if  we  he  dead  with  Christ,  we  believe  that  we  shall 


268  RESURRECTION. 

also  live  with  Him  ";  Gal.  ii.  20,  "  /  am  crucified  with  Christ : 
nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  hut  Christ  liveth  in  me ";  2  Cor. 
V.  14,  '^ If  one  died  for  all,  then  all  died^^\  1  Cor.  xv.  22,  ^'■For 
as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ  shall  all  he  made  alive  "; 
i.  e.,  "that  in  virtue  of  the  union,  covenant  and  vital,  between 
Christ  and  His  people.  His  death  vras  their  death,  His  resurrec- 
tion their  resurrection,  and  His  exaltation  theirs.  These  pass- 
ages all  express  what  has  already  taken  place ;  not  what  is  future 
or  merely  in  prospect.  The  resurrection,  the  quickening,  and 
raising  up  of  Chi'ist's  people,  were  accomplished  when  He  rose 
from  the  dead  and  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of  God.  The  life 
of  the  whole  body  is  in  the  head ;  and,  therefore,  when  the  head 
rose,  the  hody  roseP  * 

II.  Another  effect  of  the  power  of  the  resurrection  is  the 
strong  assurance  it  gives  all  helievers  of  the  resurrection  of  their 
mortal  hodies  /  ^^He  that  raised  up  Christ  from  the  dead  shaU 
also  quicken  your  mortal  hodies  hy  His  Spirit  that  dwelleth 
m  you  "  (Rom.  viii.  11).  The  mystery  of  our  future  resurrection 
exceeds  our  reason ;  but  it  is  as  clearly  revealed,  as  it  is  inexpli- 
cable. The  Apostle  distinctly  connects  the  final  resurrection  of 
believers  with  the  accomplished  resurrection  of  Christ.  As  His 
body  was  raised  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  that  dwelt  in  Him, 
BO  our  bodies  shall  be  raised  by  the  Spirit  that  dwells  in  us. 
As  His  body  was  sanctified  by  having  been  the  residence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  therefore  could  not  be  the  prey  of  the  grave  for- 
ever, so  our  bodies,  being  once  honored  as  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  cannot  remain  under  the  dominion  of  death.  And  as  the 
indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  Him  secured  His  rising  from  the 
dead,  so  the  indwelling  of  that  same  Spirit  in  us  secures  our 
rising  from  the  dead.  And  the  fact  that  He  did  thus  rise,  is 
the  pledge  and  security  to  us  that  we  shall  rise  also.  It  may  be 
because  we  cannot  understand  the  mystery  of  the  resurrection  of 
our  mortal  bodies  that  we  think  so  little  of  it  as  a  source  of  joy- 
ful expectation.     But  it  is  one  of  the  most  exhilarating  and  glo- 

*  Hodge  on  Eph.  ii.  5. 


RESURRECTION.  269 

rious  truths  revealed  in  Scripture.  If  we  realized  it  as  we  ought, 
we  could  not,  as  so  many  do,  regard  the  cold,  damp,  dark  grave 
with  any  sense  of  aversion  or  repulsion.  If  we  knew  the  power 
of  His  resurrection  in  securing  our  own,  as  Paul  desired  to  know 
,  it,  then  we  should  long  to  be  conformed  to  His  death,  so  that  we 
might  attain  to  a  similar  resurrection  from  the  dead.  The  or- 
dinary comments  upon  this  latter  clause  of  the  verse  seem  to  me 
to  eviscerate  it  of  all  its  meaning.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  has 
any  reference  to  the  fact  that  Paul  was  conscious  that  he  was 
exposed  to  a  violent  death  similar  to  that  of  Christ.  But  it 
means  that  being  dead  like  Christ  and  lying  in  the  grave  like 
Him,  being  thus  conformed  to  His  death,  he  would  in  like  man- 
ner attain  to  a  similar  glorious  resurrection  by  the  same  power 
that  raised  Him  up.  Bishop  Pearson  "  on  the  Creed  "  has  ex- 
pressed this  idea  in  the  following  words :  "  The  resurrection  of 
Christ  is  the  cause  of  our  resurrection  by  a  double  causahty,  as 
an  efficient  and  as  an  exemplary  cause.  As  an  efficient  cause  our 
Saviour,  by  and  upon  this  resurrection,  has  attained  power  and 
right  to  raise  all  the  dead.  '  For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive.'  As  an  exemplary  cause,  in  regard  that 
all  the  saints  of  God  shall  rise  after  the  similitude  and  in  con- 
formity to  the  resurrection  of  Christ :  For  if  we  have  heen  plant- 
ed together  in  the  likeness  of  His  death,  we  shall  he  also  in  the 
likeness  of  His  resurrection  (Rom.  vi.  5)."  This  then  is  a  second 
power  of  the  resurrection  ;  that  it  confirms  and  proves  the  resur- 
rection of  believers :  Christ  rising  from  the  dead  has  obtained  the 
power  to  effect,  and  is  become  the  pattern  of  our  resurrection. 
We  are  the  members  of  that  body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head ; 
"  And  if  the  head  be  risen,  the  members  cannot  be  far  behind."* 

III.  A  third  power  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  that  by 
means  of  it  believers  are yws^*/?6^.  "He  was  delivered  for  our 
offences,  but  was  raised  again  for  our  justification  "  (Rom.  iv. 
25).  This  truth  is  not  fully  grasped  by  the  Church  in  general. 
It  is  more  frequently  the  case  that  the  consciousness  of  believers 

*  Pearson. 


270  RESURRECTION. 

turns  to  tlie  death  of  Christ  as  effecting  their  justification.  But 
the  death  of  Christ  was  onlj  a  demonstration  of  the  guilt  of  those 
whom  He  represented.  The  work  of  their  justification  was  only 
begun  in  His  death.  Had  it  been  arrested  at  this  point  by  His 
faihire  to  rise,  they  never  could  have  heen  justified.  He  wrought 
their  justification  by  His  death,  but  its  efficacy  depended  on  His 
resm'rection.  By  His  death  Hq  paid  their  debt,  in  His  resurrec- 
tion He  received  their  acquittance.  He  was  quickened  by  the 
Spirit  and  by  this  Spirit  y72i&  justified  Himself  from,  every  charge 
that  could  be  alleged  against  Him  as  the  party  and  covenant  head 
of  those  whose  iniquities  He  bore.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  is 
therefore  something  more  than  a  mere  proof  oi  our  justification. 
It  loas,  in  fact,  our  justification.  It  was  an  integral,  essential 
part  of  the  thing  itself.  His  resurrection  was  the  justification  of 
Jesus  himself  as  the  Head  of  the  Church ;  it  was  the  actual  dis- 
charge of  the  prisoner  on  account  of  His  satisfaction  of  the  debt 
which  He  had  assumed.  If  Christ  had  remained  under  the 
power  of  death,  the  curse  of  the  law  could  not  have  been  re- 
moved from  us ;  we  should  have  been  left  to  die  in  our  sins.  He 
was  delivered  for  our  offences  and  raised  again  for  our  justifica- 
tion. "  Jesus  bowed  beneath  that  death  which  the  law  demand- 
ed and  which  sinks  angels  and  men  to  everlasting  ruin  ;  and  He 
came  victorious  from  the  conflict.  If  He  had  been  a  creature, 
He  would  have  been  crushed,  sunk,  lost ;  if  He  had  been  less 
than  God,  the  bitterness  of  death  could  not  have  been  passed ; 
never,  never  could  He  have  emerged  from  that  thick  darkness 
into  which  He  entered  when  He  made  His  soul  an  offering  for 
sin.  The  morning  of  the  third  day — and  a  more  glorious  day 
never  dawned  upon  our  earth — forever  settled  the  question 
of  our  justification.  When  our  great  Substitute  had  given 
up  the  ghost  and  '  descended  into  hell,'  the  possibility  of  His 
return  to  us  depended  upon  His  ability  to  meet  and  exhaust 
the  infinite  wrath  of  the  Infinite  God.  When  the  terrific  cup 
was  administered,  and  He  drank  it  and  died,  His  slumbers  in 
Joseph's  tomb  could  never  have  been  broken,  unless  He  could 
thunder  with  a  voice  like  God,  and  bear  the  burden  of  infinite 
woe.     The  third  day,  which  proclaimed  His  triumph,  declared 


RESURRECTION.  271 

Him  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  '  according  to  the  spirit 
of  holiness '  by  His  resurrection  from  the  dead.  He  had  died  a 
death  which  none  could  die  but  one  who  was  almighty."  *  And 
when  He  rose  from  that  death  in  triumph,  He  arose  justified^ 
and  drew  with  Him  in  His  train  all  His  people  for  whose  sins 
He  had  undertaken  the  conflict ;  and  thus  He  rose  for  their  jus- 
tification. 

TV.  In  close  connection  with  this  thought,  I  call  your  atten- 
tion to  a  fact  recorded  by  Matthew,  about  which  you  rarely  ever 
hear  anything  said :  first,  because  few  really  believe  it,  and  sec- 
ondly, because  it  is  only  once  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament. 
But  it  is  a  most  amazing  fact  and  is  strikingly  illustrative  of 
what  may  be  called  the  physical  power  of  His  resurrection.  On 
the  first  day  of  the  week  after  Christ's  burial,  at  early  dawn,  there 
was  a  great  earthquake,  and  the  body  of  Jesus  was  restored  to 
life,  and  He  walked  forth  from  His  grave  a  hving  man.  Now, 
an  earthquake  is  &  physical  effect,  involving  the  play  of  tremen- 
dous physical  forces.  This  earthquake  was  no  mere  coincidence ; 
it  was  actually  produced  by  Jesus  rising  from  the  dead.  It  was 
only  one  among  the  many  proofs  of  the  "  power  of  His  resurrec- 
tion." The  earth  in  giving  up  the  dead  was  convulsed  with 
mighty  throes,  and  thus  the  forces  of  nature  were  made  to  attest 
the  power  of  His  resurrection.  But  this  was  not  all ;  He  burst 
the  prison  of  the  grave  not  only  for  Himself,  but  for  many 
others — the  graves  all  around  Him  were  opened,  "and  many 
bodies  of  saints  which  slept,  arose  and  came  out  of  their  graves 
after  His  resurrection,  and  went  into  the  holy  city,  and  appeared 
unto  many."  ISTow,  here  is  a  stupendous  physical  fact :  that  as 
soon  as  Christ  arose  He  drew  others  from  the  dead  and  brought 
them  with  Him  into  the  living  world.  It  proves  that  the  "  power 
of  Christ's  resurrection  "  "  reached  down  into  the  domains  of  the 
dead.  Even  in  the  appalling  regions  of  physical  corruption  He 
overthrew  the  empire  of  him  who,  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
'  had  the  power  of  death,'  and  acquired  the  authority  not  only  to 

^  ^     *  ThornweU,  II.,  p.  298.  , 


272  RESURRECTION. 

conduct  tlie  souls  He  had  redeemed  to  the  mansions  of  eternal 
peace,  but  also  to  wrest  their  bodies  from  the  bonds  of  the  curse, 
and  present  them  to  His  Father  in  bodily  as  well  as  spiritual  glori- 
fication." We  do  not  know  who  were  these  first  trophies  of  the 
glorious  conqueror  of  the  king  of  terrors.  Was  Abraham  among 
them,  to  whom  it  was  promised  that  he  should  see  in  a  very  pe- 
culiar manner  the  day  of  the  Lord  ?  Was  Moses,  of  whom  Jude 
relates  that  Satan  strove  with  the  heavenly  powers,  about  his 
body  ?  Was  Job,  who  said,  "  I  know  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and 
that  He  shall  stand  at  the  latter  day  upon  the  earth :  And  though 
after  my  skin  worms  destroy  this  body,  yet  in  my  flesh  shall  I 
see  God  "  ?  The  narrative  leaves  us  without  a  reply,  and  is  also 
silent  as  to  the  appearance  presented  by  the  risen  saints ;  and 
when  and  where,  and  in  what  manner,  they  were  afterward  taken 
up  into  heaven.  The  mission  of  those  who  were  thus  called  from 
the  dust  of  the  grave,  was  limited  to  one  thing :  viz.,  to  repre- 
sent the  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  an  event  that  operated  with 
creative  physical  power,  in  the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future ; 
and  not  less  in  the  depth  than  in  the  height ;  and  to  give  actual 
proof  of  the  exceedingly  abundant  and  well-grounded  cause  we 
have  to  glory  in  "  the  power  of  Mis  resurrection" 

Y.  The  power  of  His  resurrection  is  exemphfied  in  that  it  is 
presented  by  the  Apostle  as  the  motive  or  stimulant  to  all  holy 
living.  "If  ye  then  be  risen  with  Christ,  seek  those  things 
which  are  above  where  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God ; 
set  your  affections  on  things  above  and  not  on  things  on  the 
earth."  The  fact  that  we  are  identified  with  Christ  in  His  res- 
urrection, should  fill  us  with  lofty  aspirations,  and  should  wean 
us  from  the  love  of  earth.     Here  is  the  Apostle's  argument : 

(1.)  Being  raised  up  with  Christ,  we  ought  to  seek  things  above. 
Any  other  search  or  desire  would  be  very  inconsistent.  "  The 
image  is  this : — the  region  of  the  dead  is  beneath ;  they  are  let 
down  to  their  final  resting-place.  Should  a  man  then  rise  from 
this  dark  and  deep  receptacle,  and  ascend  to  the  living  world, 
would  he  set  his  desires  on  the  gloom  and  chill  and  rottenness 
he  had  left  behind  him  ?     Would  he  place  the  objects  of  his 


RESURRECTION.  273 

search  among  the  coffins  and  the  mean  and  creeping  things  that 
live  in  putrefaction  ?  Would  he  still  seek  for  things  below  ?  At 
the  very  idea  and  memory  of  that  locality,  would  not  his  spirit 
shudder  ?  And  if  Christians  have  been  raised  from  a  yet  lower 
condition  and  by  a  nobler  resurrection,  should  not  similar  feel- 
ings and  associations  rule  their  minds  ?  Why  should  they  be  gaz- 
ing downward  from  their  position,  and  groping  among  things  so 
far  beneath  them  ?  Their  past  state  with  its  sin  and  guilt,  its 
degradation  and  misery,  can  surely  have  no  attractions  for  them 
now.     And 

(2.)  "  Christ  is  above,  in  a  station  of  glory.  Their  union 
with  Him  will  lead  their  thoughts  to  Him.  As  He  is  in 
heaven,  holding  it  in  their  name ;  as  their  present  life  and  peace 
originate  in  union  with  Him — a  union  to  be  realized  more  vivid- 
ly when  He  shall  bid  them  '  come  up  higher,'  therefore  should 
their  desires  stretch  away  upward  and  inward  toward  Him,  and 
the  scene  He  occupies  '  on  the  right  hand  of  the  glorious  Majes- 
ty.' The  Apostle  does  not  urge  any  transcendental  contempt  of 
things  below;  but  simply  asks  that  the  heart  be  not  set  upon 
them,  in  the  same  way  and  to  the  same  extent  in  which  it  is  set 
upon  things  above.  The  pilgrim  is  not  to  despise  the  comforts  he 
may  meet  with  by  the  way ;  but  he  is  not  to  tarry  among  them, 
or  to  leave  them  with  regret.  Things  on  earth  are  only  subordi- 
nate and  instrumental ;  things  above  are  supreme  and  final.  At- 
tachment to  things  on  earth  is  unworthy  of  one  who  has  risen 
with  Christ ;  for  they  are  beneath  him,  and  the  love  of  them  is 
not  in  harmony  with  his  position  and  prospects.  What  can 
wealth  achieve  for  him  whose  treasure  is  in  heaven  ?  or  honor, 
for  him  who  is  already  enthroned  in  heavenly  places  ?  or  pleas- 
ure, for  him  who  revels  in  '  newness  of  life'  ?  or  power,  for  him 
who  is  endowed  with  a  moral  omnipotence  ?  or  fame,  for  him 
who  enjoys  the  approval  of  God  ? "  * 

Thus  the  power  of  His  resurrection  is  displayed  in  weaning 
the  heart  of  the  Church,  which  is  His  bride,  from  the  world, 
from  which  she  has  been  divorced  ;  and  in  raising  her  affections 
to  heaven,  her  destined  home. 

*  Eadie  on  Col.  iii.  1,  3. 


274  RESURRECTION. 

yi.  The  power  of  His  resurrection  is  evinced  in  thp  fact  that 
by  means  of  it  believers  are  made  to  "  walk  in  newness  of  life" 
I  wish  to  call  your  attention  specially  to  this  doctrine — All  holy 
living  flows  fr'om  the  life  of  Christ.  "  To  live  in  sin,"  and  "  to 
walk  in  newness  of  life,"  are  two  opposite  characteristics  of  two 
different  conditions.  While  a  man  is  still  alive  to  sin,  i.  e.,  un- 
der its  guilt  and  condemnation,  he  goes  on  living  in  sin,  and  he 
cannot  help  it ;  he  must  of  necessity  sin  and  keep  sinning,  for 
that  condition  has  no  life  to  produce  a  walk  according  to  God's 
mind.  But  when  such  a  man  has  become  incorporated  into  Him 
who  bore  his  sin,  he  is,  just  because  his  judgment  has  been  borne^ 
and  by  virtue  of  his  union  with  Jesus  risen  and  living  forever,  a 
partaker  of  Christ's  hfe ;  and  tliis  is  "  newness  of  life."  "When 
the  Apostle  speaks  of  this  newness  of  life  as  connected  with  the 
resurrection  of  Christ,  he  simply  declares  that  they  who  died  in 
Christ  have  become  righteously  and  really  living  in  Him,  in 
whose  death  they  died,  and  this  is  a  new  life  to  them.  Being 
then  made  partakers  of  life  in  Christ,  who  was  raised  from  the 
dead,  they  are  called  to  walk  "in  newness  of  life."  The  con- 
clusion is  obvious :  that  whatever  deliverance  from  the  power  of 
sin,  or  whatever  attainment  may  be  made  in  holiness,  these  are 
the  outgoings  and  manifestations  of  the  life  of  our  risen  and  ex.^ 
alted  Lord.  "  The  holy  walk  of  the  believer,  in  this  world,  is  not 
the  result  of  his  death  to  the  power  of  sin,  nor  is  it  the  result  of 
the  evil  principle  being  dead  in  him,  but  it  is  the  fruit  of  a  life 
which  has  been  given  him  in  Christ  Jesus,  as  the  reward  of  his 
obedience  unto  death.  And  the  truth  of  this, — our  death  to  the 
guilt  of  sin  in  His  death,  and  our  life  unto  God  in  His  life,  is  ever 
more  offered  to  the  faith  of  living  saints  as  the  directing  motive 
of  their  life."  This  is  what  the  Apostle  means  when  he  says, 
"  Therefore,  we,"  i.  e.,  all  believers  without  exception,  (not  one 
class  of  believers  who  have  made  high  attainments  in  piety,  as 
distinguished  from  some  who  have  not  yet  "got  the  blessing" 
from  a  want  of  "  unreserved  consecration  " — we,  any  of  you  and 
all  of  you),  "  are  buried  with  Him  by  baptism*  into  death,  that  like 

*  "Buried  with  Him  by  baptism"  has  no  reference  to  immersion,  as  Bap- 
tists teach. 


RESURRECTION.  275' 

as  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead  by  the  glory  of  the  Father, 
even  so  we  also  should  walk  in  newness  of  life"  (Rom.  vi.  4). 
This,  then,  is  another  power  of  His  resurrection,  that  it  actually 
imparts  to  all  believers  a  new  spiritual  life. 

VII.  I  have  dwelt  so  long  on  the  power  of  His  resurrection  in 
believers  as  individuals,  that  I  have  left  time  for  only  one  remark 
as  to  the  "  power  of  His  resurrection  "  as  manifested  in  the  course 
of  human  history.  If  you  will  read  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  care- 
fully, you  will  see  that  the  chief  element  in  their  preaching  was 
their  personal  testimony  to  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  You  will 
see  that  Matthias  was  chosen  in  the  place  of  Judas,  to  be  with  the 
rest  a  witness  to  the  resurrection  of  Jesus.  This  was  an  essential 
qualification  of  an  Apostle.  And  in  order  that  Saul  of  Tarsus 
might  be  thus  qualified  to  be  an  Apostle,  it  was  necessary  to 
bring  him  to  a  personal  interview  with  the  risen  and  ascended 
Saviour ;  so  that  he  might  be  able  to  say  he  had  "  seen  "  the  risen 
Lord.  Now,  as  I  said  in  the  beginning,  that  the  resurrection  of 
Christ  was  the  key-stone  in  the  arch  of  the  plan  of  redemption, 
80  now  I  say,  from  another  point  of  view,  that  it  is  the  founda- 
tion on  which  the  Church  is  built.  Hence  all  the  victories  of 
Christianity  in  the  world  are  the  direct  result  of  the  2>ower  of  His 
resurrection.  The  Christian  Church  is  the  colossal  structure 
reared  upon  this  foundation,  deep  as  the  granite  basis  of  the 
world.  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching  vain  and 
your  faith  is  vain."  But  preaching  has  not  been  vain  ;  faith  has 
not  been  vain.  The  preaching  of  this  risen  Christ  has  revolution- 
ized human  history ;  it  has  brought  a  new  power  into  social,  do- 
mestic, and  political  life.  Of  the  two  doctrines,  the  Crucifixion 
and  the  Resurrection, — the  one  inspired  among  all  men  indig- 
nant horror,  the  other  unbounded  scorn.  Consider  what  these 
doctrines  have  overcome :  First,  "  Judaism  with  its  long  and 
splendid  history,  rolling  back  from  the  heroic  struggles  of  the 
Asmonean  princes  to  the  magnificence  of  Solomon ;  nay,  back- 
ward to  the  day,  when,  with  uplifted  spear,  Joshua  had  bidden 
the  sun  to  stand  still  on  Gibeon  ;  and  Abraham,  obeying  the 
mysterious  summons,  had  abandoned  the  gods  of  his  fathers^  in 


276  RESURRECTION. 

Ur  of  the  Chaldees.  The  rod  of  Moses,  the  harp  of  David,  the 
ephod  of  Samuel,  the  mantle  of  Elijah,  the  graven  gems  on 
Aaron's  breast,  the  granite  tables  of  Sinai,  the  hving  oracles  of 
God — all  these  were  the  inheritance  of  Judah ;  and  who  was  this 
crucified  Nazarene  about  whom  some  miserable  Galileans  testi- 
fied that  He  had  risen  from  the  dead,  that  He  should  dare  to  as- 
sail an  immemorial  faith  like  this !  But  still,  Judaism  survived 
His  resurrection  for  only  forty  years.  The  blood  of  the  King 
whom  they  had  crucified,  fell  like  a  rain  of  fire  from  heaven  upon 
them  and  their  children," 

Secondly,  they  encountered  Paganism,  with  its  mercenary 
priests,  its  proud  philosophy,  its  favorite  vices,  its  tyrannous 
politics,  and  its  abominable  and  debauched  social  life.  Yet,  un- 
aided by  anything  external,  the  doctrine  of  a  risen  Jesus  won. 
"  Without  one  earthly  weapon,  Christianity  faced  the  legionary 
masses,  and  tearing  down  their  adored  eagles  replaced  them  by 
the  sacred  monogram  of  her  victorious  labarum  /  made  the  cross, 
the  instrument  of  a  slave's  agony,  more  glorious  than  the  laticlave 
of  consuls  or  the  diadem  of  kings  ";  without  eloquence,  silenced 
the  subtle  dialectics  of  the  Academy ;  and  without  knowledge,  the 
encyclopaedic  ambition  of  the  Porch.  And  when,  after  essaying 
argument,  and  rhetoric,  and  railing,  and  irony,  and  invective  in 
vain.  Paganism  resorted  to  brute  force  and  crushing  violence,  even 
then  Julian,  the  last  of  the  persecuting  pagan  emperors,  died  prema- 
turely in  the  wreck  of  his  broken  powers  with  the  despairing 
words  upon  his  pallid  lips,  as  he  flung  toward  heaven  a  handful 
of  his  clotted  blood,  "  Yicisti  Galiloie^''  "  O  Galilsean,  thou  hast 
conquered ! "  Then  after  triumphing  over  external  foes  the  doc- 
trine of  a  Divine  Kisen  Redeemer  encountered  foes  in  its  own 
household,  and  the  Arian  apostasy  threatened  the  very  existence 
of  the  Church,  while  Athanasius  seemed  to  "  stand  alone  against 
the  world."  But  there  were  thousands  of  the  true  people  of  God 
who  constituted  the  church  that  had  not  bowed  to  Baal,  and 
mouths  that  had  not  kissed  him  ;  and  the  great  heart  of  the 
Christian  multitude  remained  sound. 

Then  came  the  avalanche  of  the  northern  barbarian  invasion  ; 
and  it  seemed  to  the  eye  of  man  as  if  the  church  must  perish. 


RESURRECTION.  ^rt 

But  in  the  language  of  Gibbon,  "  The  progress  of  Christianity 
was  marked  not  only  by  a  decisive  victory  over  the  learned  and 
luxurious  civilization  of  the  Roman  empire,  but  over  the  warlike 
barbarians  of  Scythia  and  Germany,  who  first  subverted  the  em- 
pire and  then  embraced  the  religion  of  the  vanquished." 

Then  in  the  seventh  century  came  Mohammedanism,  with  its 
trooping  beauties  and  heaven  of  lust ;  then  Atheism  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  when  Christendom  had  ceased  to  be  Christian, 
and  priests,  turned  atheists,  made  open  scoff  of  the  religion  they 
professed  ;  when  a  Cardinal  Bembo  could  speak  of  Christ  as 
"  Minerva  sprung  from  the  head  of  Jupiter ";  and  Pope  John 
jested  with  his  secretary  on  the  "  profitableness  of  the  fable  of 
Christ."  All  seemed  lost  and  dead,  when  the  voice  of  Luther's 
indignation  shook  the  world.  The  hierarchy  fell ;  but  the  power 
of  His  resurrection,  by  which  we  are  justified,  saved  the  Church. 

And  so  I  might  go  on,  did  time  permit,  and  show  you  how 
down  to  this  very  moment  the  energy  of  Christ's  resurrection 
has  been  reforming  apostate  civihzations ;  and  when  it  did  not 
reform,  has  been  purging  out  pestilence  from  the  reeking  atmos- 
phere with  fire  and  storm.  Other  religions  have  withered  into 
dishonored  decrepitude ;  but  Christianity,  with  continuous  reju- 
venescence, has  renewed  her  strength  like  the  eagle,  has  run  and 
not  been  weary,  has  walked  and  not  been  faint.  If  ever,  through 
her  own  faithlessness,  she  has  fallen  before  her  enemies,  she  has 
risen,  Antseus-like,  with  new  vigor,  and  "  shaken  her  invincible 
locks."  She  cannot  die,  because,  by  the  power  of  His  resurrect 
tion,  she  is  endued  with  the  "  power  of  an  endless  life." 

The  power  of  His  resurrection  has  left  its  imprint  upon  the 
very  calendars  of  all  Christianized  nations.  As  His  birthday  was 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era,  so  that  in  every  letter  you  write,  in 
every  legal  document  you  pen,  in  every  legislative  enactment 
that  is  engrossed,  in  every  historical  event  that  is  recorded,  even 
infidels  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  "  year  of  our  Lord  ": 
so  at  the  beginning  of  every  week  all  Christendom  recognizes 
the  "  power  of  His  resurrection,"  in  observing  as  sacred  the  day 
when  He  entered  into  His  rest  and  ceased  from  His  labors,  as 


278  RESURRECTION. 

God  did  after  the  first  creation.  When  busy  commerce  in  all 
our  crowded  marts  folds  her  arms,  and  the  din  of  trade  is  hushed 
in  the  still  Sunday  morning ;  when  church-bells  ring  out  their 
gladsome  tones  in  honor  of  the  day ;  when  even  law  refuses  to 
enforce  contracts  made  in  violation  of  the  sanctity  of  this  dies 
nan,  how  can  we  doubt  the  power  of  His  resurrection  ?  Yes  ! 
the  Chi-istian  Sabbath,  with  all  that  this  involves,  observed  by 
300,000,000  of  the  human  race,  attests  the  "  power  of  His  resur- 
rection." 

*'  '  Christ  the  Lord  is  risen  to-day,' 
Sons  of  men  and  angels  say ; 
Raise  yom-  joys  and  triumphs  high, 
Sing,  ye  heavens,  and,  earth,  reply. 

"  Vain  the  stone,  the  watch,  the  seal; 
Christ  has  burst  the  gates  of  hell ; 
Death,  in  vain,  forbids  Him  rise, 
Christ  hath  opened  Paradise. 

"  HaU  the  Lord  of  earth  and  heaven! 
Praise  to  Thee  by  both  be  given  1 
Thee  we  greet  triumphant  now  I 
Hail  the  Resurrection  Thou." 


XXIV. 
HEAYEK 

"In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions:  if  it  were  not  so,  I  would 
have  told  you,    I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you." — John  xiv.  2. 

If  we  were  informed  by  a  competent  authority  tLat  a  large 
part  of  our  present  life  on  earth  is  to  be  spent  in  another  coun- 
try, different  in  every  respect  from  the  land  of  our  birth,  where 
greater  happiness  than  we  ever  experienced  would  fall  to  our  lot, 
where  the  society  with  which  we  should  associate  would  be  more 
agreeable  and  congenial,  the  employments  in  which  we  should 
engage  more  interesting  and  exciting,  the  range  of  our  thought 
more  extended,  and  the  objects  of  desire  and  affection  more  ele- 
vated and  exalted, — we  should  certainly  be  most  deeply  inter- 
ested in  learning  beforehand  all  that  might  be  known  in  regard 
to  that  untried  country  of  which  we  w"ere  to  become  the  deni- 
zens. How  eagerly  would  we  read  every  book  which  could  give 
us  any  information  respecting  it !  How  anxiously  would  we  in- 
terrogate every  pilgrim  returning  from  that  distant  shore !  How 
carefully  would  we  treasure  up  in  our  memories  every  piece  of 
intelligence  which  might  reach  us  in  regard  to  the  climate,  the 
society,  the  politics,  the  laws,  the  government,  the  religion,  the 
fashions,  the  customs  of  our  future  home ! 

Now,  what  I  have  presented  in  the  form  of  a  mere  supposi- 
tion is  in  reality  a  sober  fact.  We  are  informed  by  a  competent 
authority,  that  each  one  of  us  who  is  a  Christian,  will,  after  a 
longer  or  a  shorter  period,  be  immediately  transported  to  another 
and  a  better  country  than  that  which  we  now  inhabit,  where  our 
condition,  character,  associations,  and  employments  will  be  ma- 
terially modified  and  changed.  "We  are  informed  that  the  place 
to  which  we  are  thus  destined  is  called  Heaven.    And  it  is  not 

(279) 


280  HEAVEN. 

strange  that  we  should  be  anxious  to  know  all  that  may  be  known 
about  this,  which  is  to  be  our  future  eternal  abode. 

"While  we  speak  of  heaven  as  if  it  were  a  place  of  which  we 
know  everything,  is  it  not  true  that  many  of  us  have  very  vague, 
shadowy,  dim,  unsatisfactory  conceptions  of  the  state  of  the 
blessed  dead  and  of  the  place  where  they  are  to  spend  their 
eternity  ?  Perhaps  this  incertitude  is  unavoidable  and  pertains 
of  necessity  to  our  present  imperfect  intellectual  development. 
All  the  knowledge  we  can  have  of  heaven  must  come  to  us 
through  a  written  revelation.  But  a  revelation  can  be  made  to 
us  only  in  words;  and  human  language  is  a  very  imperfect  me- 
dium for  the  conveyance  of  conceptions  wliich  have  no  pattern 
on  earth  with  which  we  can  compare  them.  Another  reason 
for  the  vagueness  of  our  notions  respecting  heaven  is  that  the 
Scriptures  nowhere  undertake  to  give  us  a  description  of  it,  except 
in  the  highly  figurative  language  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John, 
which  no  one  understands,  and  which  it  is  probable  it  was  not 
meant  that  we  should  understand.  While  these  figurative  de- 
scriptions are  unintelligible,  they  are  not  on  that  account  to  be 
neglected  or  despised,  for  they  convey  to  us  some  general  idea  of 
the  splendor,  the  beauty,  and  the  bliss  of  the  New  Jerusalem. 

Now,  while  all  this  is  true,  it  is  clear  that  God  has  not  left  us 
entirely  in  the  dark  with  respect  to  the  place  and  state  of  the 
soul  after  death.  He  has  revealed  so  much  as  is  necessary  to  ex- 
cite our  desires  to  reach  that  heavenly  abode,  and  to  stimulate  us 
to  that  patient  continuance  in  well-doing  by  wliich  we  shall  reach 
glory  and  honor  and  immortality  beyond  the  grave. 

Let  us  endeavor  to  gather  together  the  scattered  rays  of  light 
and  bring  them  into  one  focus. 

I.  The  Scriptures  clearly  teach  that  heaven  is  a  place ;  i.  e., 
that  somewhere  in  the  universe  there  is  a  central  spot,  where  are 
congregated  together  holy  angels  and  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect.  "  We  sometimes  hear  and  read  such  statements 
as  this :  Heaven  is  a  state  as  well  as  a  place.  Such  propositions 
have  no  meaning."  *     They  are  words  which  are  not  intended  to 

*  See  Harbaugh  on  Heaven. 


HEAVEN.  281 

convey  thought,  but  are  used  simply  to  conceal  the  absence 
of  all  thought.  I  do  not  know  what  is  meant  by  saying  Heaven 
is  a  state.  To  my  mind,  it  is  equivalent  to  a  negation  of  thought. 
Now,  let  us  look  at  the  proofs  from  Scripture  that  heaven  is  a 
place. 

(1.)  In  the  text,  our  Lord  says,  "  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
you."  This  language  is  not  figurative  ;  the  word  I  go  implies  an 
actual  departure  from  one  place  to  another.  If  the  point  from 
which  He  departed  was  a  place,  the  point  toward  which  He  went 
must  be  a  place  also.  So,  too,  the  word  ^^ place  "  is  used  in  its 
literal  sense.  It  is  the  ordinary  Greek  word  for  a  locality,  used 
constantly  to  designate  a  precise  spot  or  situation.  From  this 
passage  alone,  then,  we  are  warranted  in  concluding  that  heaven 
is  a  place. 

(2.)  But  again,  that  heaven  is  a  place,  is  proved  by  the  re- 
vealed truth  that  the  bodies  of  Enoch,  of  Elijah  and  of  our 
Lord  are  in  heaven.  Now,  a  body  is  a  substance  which  has  rela- 
tions to  place.  It  is  bounded  by  limits ;  it  is  here,  and  not  there. 
It  has  spatial  relations.  As  the  bodies  of  Enoch  and  EHjah  did 
not  experience  death,  they  were  not  chemically  decomposed. 
They  did  not  see  corruption.  The  particles  which  composed 
those  bodies  were  never  separated  from  each  other ;  the  flesh  and 
bones  and  muscles  and  nerves  must  have  retained  their  organic 
connection  with  each  other,  and  do  retain  them  to  this  very  day 
and  hour. 

The  statement  in  Genesis  with  regard  to  the  translation  of 
Enoch  is  not  decisive — there  it  is  simply  said  that  Enoch  walked 
with  God  and  was  not,  for  God  took  him ;  the  same  form  of  ex- 
pression is  applied  to  those  who  died — that  they  were  not.  But 
St.  Paul  relieves  us  of  all  doubt  by  the  distinct  assertion  that  on 
account  of  his  faith  Enoch  was  translated  that  he  should  not  see 
death  and  was  not  found,  because  God  had  translated  him ;  i.  e., 
his  actual  physical  body  was  removed /row  this  earth  and  carried 
away ;  and  if  it  was  carried  away  it  must  have  been  carried  to 
some  place,  and  that  place  must  be  heaven.  The  narrative  of 
the  translation  of  Elijah  is  succinct  and  clear.  Standing  with 
Ehsha  on  the  bank  of  the  river  Jordan,  and  in  view  of  fifty  young 


282  HEAVEN. 

men  who  composed  the  school  of  the  prophets,  he  is  visibly 
placed  by  angels  in  a  fiery  chariot  drawn  by  horses  of  fire  and 
forcibly  separated  from  his  companions  and  in  a  whirlwind  car- 
ried up  to  heaven.  He  wore  a  mantle ;  that  mantle  was  com- 
posed of  woolen  or  silken  fibres — it  was  matter,  and  Elijah's 
body  was  matter,  consisting  of  flesh  and  bones  and  blood.  The 
ma/ntle  which  he  wore  was  thrown  out  of  the  chariot  and  feU 
upon  Elisha,  symbolically  to  denote  that  he  inherited  from  his 
master  the  prophetic  spirit,  and  also  because  no  doubt  this  fabric 
of  wool  or  silk  could  not  be  carried  up  to  heaven.  Now,  the 
mantle  came  back  to  the  earth  and  was  taken  up  and  worn  by 
Elisha;  but  the  flesh  and  bones  and  blood  of  the  translated 
prophet  went  with  his  soul  into  heaven.  The  young  prophets 
asked  permission  to  hunt  for  the  body  of  Elijah.  Elisha,  who 
knew  that  the  body  of  Elijah  was  taken  away  from  the  earth, 
discouraged  the  search,  but  after  being  importuned  by  them  con- 
sented to  it,  and  after  an  unavailing  search  of  three  days,  in  his 
case  as  in  Enoch's,  Elijah  was  not  found :  because  God  had  trans- 
lated him,  i.  e.,  his  hody  to  heaven. 

Now  the  body  of  Elijah  was  a  substance,  having  relations  to 
s^axie  a.jid  place  f'  it  was  not  annihilated  ;  it  was  not  decomposed ; 
it  underwent  no  corruption  ;  in  its  physical  entireness  it  was 
snatched  SiW2Lj  from  this  earth  and  borne  to  some  other  place 
through  the  air.  It  was  seen  926  years  afterward  by  Peter, 
James,  and  John,  in  company  with  Moses,  on  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration,  in  familiar  conversation  with  our  Lord.  It  went 
and  it  came  back  ;  and  it  must  have  gone  somewhere  and  come 
from  somewhere — that  somewhere  must  have  been  a,  place,  and 
that  pla<ie  was  heaven. 

(3.)  Again,  it  is  a  matter  of  history  that  our  Lord  died  and  was 
buried  and  rose  from  the  dead  in  His  own  proper  body.  He  in 
this  body  appeared  to  two  of  His  disciples,  sat  at  meat  with  them 
in  this  body,  broke  bread  and  gave  it  to  them  and  suddenly  van- 
ished out  of  their  sight.  Astonished  at  His  presence  and  still 
more  at  His  sudden  exit,  they  came  in  haste  to  Jerusalem,  and 
finding  the  other  disciples  gathered  together,  told  them  of  their 
interview  with  Him,  and  while  they  were  yet  speaking,  Jesus 


HEAVEN.  283 

stood  in  the  midst  of  them  and  said,  "  Peace  be  unto  you." 
They  were  terrified,  supposing  that  they  had  seen  a  spirit.  He 
distinctly  disclaimed  being  a  spirit,  and  said,  "  Behold  my  hands 
and  my  feet,  that  it  is  I  myself  ;  handle  me  and  see,  for  a  spirit 
hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  me  have."  And  then,  in  fur- 
ther attestation  of  His  physical  existence.  He  called  for  food  and 
ate  a  piece  of  broiled  fish  and  of  an  honeycomb.  Here  were  all 
the  evidences  of  a  natural  body.  It  could  be  seen,  dind  felt,  and 
handled  /  it  took  food  and  ate  it  and  satisfied  its  hunger.  On  a 
similar  occasion,  Thomas,  who  had  been  informed  by  the  other 
disciples  that  they  had  seen  the  risen  Lord,  said,  "  Excej)t  I  shall 
Bee  in  His  hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my  finger  into  the 
print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my  hands  into  His  side,  I  will  not 
believe."  Eight  days  after  this,  Jesus  came  in  His  body  through 
closed  doors,  and  invited  Thomas  to  reach  forth  his  finger  and 
reach  forth  his  hand  and  thrust  it  into  His  wounded  side,  i.  e.,  to 
prove  to  his  sense  of  touch  the  material  existence  of  the  risen 
body  of  his  Lord.  Now,  after  a  period  of  something  more  than 
a  month,  this  same  visible,  tangible  person,  standing  with  His 
eleven  apostles  upon  Mount  Olivet,  is  taken  up  into  heaven,  and 
a  cloud  receives  Him  out  of  their  sight.  And  while  the  wonder- 
ing disciples  stand  gazing  up  after  Him  in  mute  astonishment, 
two  men  stand  by  them  dressed  in  white  apparel,  and  assure 
them  that  "  this  same  Jesus  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye 
have  seen  Him  go  into  heaven."  Here  then,  again,  was  a  body 
that  had  flesh  and  bones,  and  that  had  recently  eaten  food,  that 
was  visibly  snatched  from  this  earth  and  carried  away  to  a  place 
somewhere  beyond  the  clouds ;  and  at  the  instant  of  its  departure 
angels  inform  those  who  behold  the  prodigy  that  it  has  gone  to 
heaven  and  will  remain  there  a  human  body  for  ages,  and  will 
return  one  day  to  this  earth  in  like  manner  as  it  went.  And  that 
human,  visible,  material  body  is  now  somewhere  in  the  universe, 
and  although  the  wisest  of  us  know  not  where  it  is,  yet  we  are 
bound  to  believe,  in  view  of  all  these  concurring  testimonies,  that 
it  is  a  place,  and  that  where  He  is,  there  is  heaven.  Let  no 
sophistry  of  philosophy,  let  no  jugglery  of  metaphysics  cheat  you 
out  of  the  well-founded  belief  that  heaven  is  a  place  prepared 


284  HEAVEN. 

for  you,  and  tliat  there  are  many  mansions  in  the  Father's  house. 
We  may  not  go  farther  in  our  deductions  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown,  nor  inquire  how  visible  and  tangible  bodies  subsist  in 
this  abode.  The  Apostle  tells  us  that  there  is  a  natural  body  and 
that  there  is  a  spiritual  body — a  natural  body,  i.  e.,  a  body  adapted 
to  the  principle  of  animal  life ;  a  spiritual  body,  i.  e.,  a  body 
adapted  to  the  principle  of  spiritual  life,  and  not  as  the  words 
interpreted  according  to  the  letter  would  mean,  immateinal  mat- 
te?'. A  natural  body  consists  of  flesh  and  blood,  is  susceptible  of 
pain  and  decay,  and  needs  air,  food,  and  rest ;  it  is  an  animal 
body  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  an  earthly  existence.  What  a 
spiritual  body  is,  we  know  only  from  Paul's  description  and  from 
the  manifestation  of  Christ  to  His  disciples  after  His  resurrection 
in  His  glorified  body.  But  spiritual  does  not  mean  ethereal,  re- 
fined, or  made  of  sjpii'it.,  which  would  be  a  contradiction  ;  but  a 
body  adapted  to  the  principle  of  spiritual  life  as  distinguished 
from  animal  life.  The  Apostle  teaches  us  that  flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ;  and  although  at  the  resur- 
rection those  will  be  there  who  will  join  the  Lord  at  His  second 
coming,  who,  being  alive  at  that  time,  shall  not  sleep,  that  is,  die ; 
yet  they,  too,  shall  be  "  changed^'*  i.  e.,  their  animal  bodies  will 
become  spiritual  bodies.  Now  the  point  of  all  this  is  to  suggest 
the  idea  that  as  the  spiritual  body  is  a  body  adapted  to  the  spirit- 
ual life,  so  heaven  is  2i  place,  but  not  a  place  in  the  gross  sense  of 
being  a  material  abode,  but  a  spiritual  place  adapted  to  the  resi- 
dence therein  of  the  glorified  and  spiritual  bodies  of  Enoch  and 
Elijah  and  Christ.  Now  into  this  place  we  are  to  be  introduced 
as  disembodied  spirits  immediately  upon  our  release  from  our 
mortal  bodies.  This  is  the  paradise  of  God  in  which  the  dying 
thief  met  the  spirit  of  Christ  immediately  after  the  crucifixion. 
Into  this  paradise  Paul  was  introduced,  whether  in  the  body  or 
out  of  the  body  he  knew  not,  and  there  saw  sights  and  lieard 
words  which  it  was  not  lawful  for  him  to  utter.  In  this  great 
house  of  God  not  made  with  hands  there  are  many  mansions, 
and  Christ  went  thither  to  prepare  a  place  for  all  them  that  love 
Him. 


HEAVEN.  285 

11.  I  come  now  to  tlie  inquiry,  who  are  the  inhabitants  of  this 
Paradise  of  God  ?  I  answer  first  of  all,  it  is  the  place  where 
Jesus — the  man  Christ  Jesus  in  His  glorified  resurrection  body — 
the  same  body  which  His  disciples  saw  and  handled,  dwells. 
Secondly,  it  is  the  abode  of  all  the  angels  who  worship  around 
the  throne  of  God.  Thirdly,  it  is  the  abode  of  Enoch  and  Elijah 
in  their  glorified  and  spiritual  bodies.  Fourthly,  it  is  the  abode 
of  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect.  If  speculation  were 
allowable  in  this  connection,  we  might  add  a  fifth  class  of  intelli- 
gent beings  composed  of  the  inhabitants  of  other  worlds  than 
ours,  who  may  be  presumed  to  have  been  translated  from  their 
starry  homes  to  compose  a  part  of  the  shining  retinue  of  the 
King  of  Glory. 

But  we  are  not  to  be  wise  above  what  is  written.  We  are 
nevertheless  entitled  to  be  wise  up  to  what  is  written.  And 
Scripture  justifies  us  in  asserting  that  heaven  is  the  abode  of  Je- 
sus, of  angels,  of  translated  men,  and  of  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect. 

The  Apostle  Paul,  in  the  12th  of  Hebrews,  in  describing  the 
glorious  privilege  of  believers,  enters  into  a  detailed  description 
of  the  Church  on  earth  and  the  Church  in  heaven ;  and  in  speak- 
ing of  the  latter,  he  describes  it  as  composed  of  an  innumerable 
company  of  angels  and  of  the  spirits  of  justified  men  made  per- 
fect. The  prophet  Daniel,  in  a  vision  of  the  night,  saw  heaven 
opened,  and  "thousand  thousands  and  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  ministered  unto  and  stood  before  the  Ancient  of  Days." 

Here  imagination  shrinks  abashed  and  droops  its  palsied  pin- 
ion when  it  would  attempt  to  body  forth  in  language  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  splendid  scene.  An  innumerable  company  of  created 
spirits,  older  than  time  ;  mysterious  cherubim  and  burning 
seraphim,  principalities  and  powers,  hosts  of  inferior  angels 
ranked  in  endless  files ;  and  all  the  armies  of  the  sons  of  God ; 
the  glorious  company  of  the  Apostles,  the  goodly  fellowship  of 
the  prophets,  the  noble  army  of  martyrs,  and  among  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  saints,  some  whose  very  names  are  familiar  to 
our  ears ;  the  father  and  mother  of  mankind,  our  primal  ances- 
tors;   Noah    and   his  children  who  by  faith  condemned  the 


286  HEAVEN. 

world;  Abraham,  the  friend  of  God;  Isaac,  the  child  of 
prayer ;  the  princely  Jacob,  who  j)revailed  with  God ;  Joseph 
and  the  patriarchs ;  Moses,  the  man  of  God  ;  Joshua,  the  son  of 
Nun ;  Deborah,  the  warrior  prophetess ;  Samson  and  Jephtha ; 
David,  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel ;  the  kingly  Hezekiah ;  plain- 
tive Jeremiah  ;  the  rapt  Ezekiel  and  Isaiah,  whose  lips  a  seraph 
touched  with  a  live  coal  of  fire;  the  saintly  Daniel  "and  the 
three  who  walked  unsinged  and  scatheless  through  the  fiery 
flame " — but  the  time  would  fail  me  to  mention  the  names  of 
thousands  who  we  know  are  there.  And  last  in  the  enumera- 
tion, but  not  least  in  point  of  interest  to  each  one  of  us,  our  own 
blessed  dead  are  there — the  little  nurslings  that  smiled  for  one 
brief  hour  on  their  mothers'  breasts ;  the  tender  lambs  that  nes- 
tled by  our  sides,  "  the  dove  whose  gentle  cooing  echoed  in  our 
hearts,"  the  gentle  sister,  the  brave  and  gifted  and  beautiful, — 
all,  all  our  loved  and  lost  ones  whose  memory  dwells  in  our  souls 
like  a  departed  glory,  are  there ;  they  are  there. 

III.  Let  us  turn  to  consider  the  nature  and  character  of  these 
inhabitants  of  the  heavenly  abode. 

(1.)  They  are  all  intelligent  beings ;  of  this  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  The  Scriptures  everywhere  ascribe  lofty  intelligence  to 
the  angels,  everywhere  investing  them  with  the  attributes,  ac- 
tions, and  emotions  of  self-conscious  beings.  They  praise  God 
continually,  they  rejoice  over  repenting  sinners.  They  hearken 
to  the  voice  of  God's  Word,  they  talk  with  each  other,  they 
are  employed  by  God  as  the  ministers  of  His  providence 
and  as  the  executors  of  His  judgments.  So  too  the  Scrip- 
tures everywhere  ascribe  intelligence  to  the  souls  of  departed 
saints.  All  that  the  Scriptures  say  on  this  subject  is  based  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  souls  of  believers  at  the  very  instant  of 
death  enter  at  once  upon  a  state  of  quickened  intellectual  activity. 
There  is  no  such  doctrine  as  that  implied  in  the  expression,  "  the 
Bleep  of  the  soul,"  taught  in  that  which  is  revealed  to  us. 

(2.)  But  if  heaven  is  peopled  with  intelligent  self-conscious 
beings,  it  follows  from  the  very  necessities  of  the  case  that  they 
must  hold  intercourse  with  each  other.     Man  and  all  intelligent 


HEAVEN.  287 

beings  are  constituted  to  be  bappy  in  society.  Place  a  man  in 
solitude,  and  bowever  exciting  and  felicitous  bis  circumstances  in 
otber  respects,  be  will  witber  and  pine  away.  And  if  beaven  is  a 
place  of  perfect  bliss,  tben  tbis  element  of  bappiness  will  not  and 
T  cannot  be  wanting  tbere.  Witb  tbe  entire  beaven  of  angels  and 
tbe  wbole  bost  of  tbe  redeemed,  we  sball  have  sweet  and  improv- 
ing fellowsbip  forever.  Tbe  wise  and  tbe  good,  tbe  great  and 
tbe  pure,  tbe  benevolent  and  tbe  active  from  every  region  will  be 
our  companions  and  associates,  witb  wbom  we  sball  live,  and 
love,  and  know,  and  obey,  tbrougb  one  eternally  enduring  day. 
Of  all  tbe  afflictions  to  wbicb  we  are  liable,  tbere  is  none  so  pain- 
ful as  tbe  deatb  of  our  friends.  And  ob,  bow  consoling  tbe  doc- 
trine tbat  we  sball  in  tbe  realms  above  be  restored  to  tbeir  fellow- 
sbip !  Tbis  doctrine  is  involved  in  many  passages  of  Scripture ; 
in  tbe  account  of  tbe  last  judgment, — in  tbe  language  of  David 
on  tbe  occasion  of  tbe  deatb  of  bis  infant  cbild, — in  tbe  parable 
of  tbe  ricb  man  and  Lazarus, — in  tbe  consolation  wbicb  our  Sav- 
iour gives  to  tbe  penitent  tbief  on  tbe  cross, — in  tbe  assurance 
administered  by  Paul  to  tbe  Tbessalonians  tbat  tbey  sbould  be 
bis  joy  and  crown  of  rejoicing  in  tbe  presence  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Cbrist  at  His  coming  and  in  bis  forbidding  tbem  to  sorrow  for  sucb 
as  bad  fallen  asleep  as  tbougb  tbey  bad  no  bope  of  being  united 
witb  tbem  and  of  being  together  witb  tbe  Lord,— and  in  tbe  gen- 
eral use  wbicb  the  sacred  writers  make  of  tbe  word  sleep  for 
deatb, — a  simile  wbicb  would  be  flagrantly  incorrect,  if  our  recol- 
lections, our  friendships  and  affections  were  not  renewed  in  a  fu- 
ture state.  And  in  general  tbe  same  doctrine  is  taught  through 
tbe  wbole  book  of  the  Revelation  of  St.  John.  Happy  prospect 
tbat  exalts  friendship  into  religion!  What  blest  society  tbere 
will  be  above ! 

(3.)  On  the  question  how  intercourse  shall  be  conducted  in  tbe 
future  state,  it  were  easy  to  speculate  or  to  refer  to  tbe  specula- 
tions of  ingenious  and  pious  minds.  These,  bowever,  conduct  us 
to  no  certain  results.  With  what  rapidity  and  to  what  extent 
spirit  may  communicate  with  spirit,  what  new  faculties  adapted 
to  communication  it  may  be  tbe  purpose  of  God  to  impart,  or 
what  existing  but  undeveloped  faculties  may  be  brought  into 


388  HEAVEN. 

play  in  that  state  of  intellectual  maturity  and  perfection — what 
channels  of  communication  accessible  to  the  blessed,  and  estab- 
lished between  the  throne  of  Him  who  is  "  Head  over  all  things  " 
and  all  parts  of  that  creation  which  He  governs,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
say.     We  may  believe  that  a  thing  is,  without  knowing  how  it  is. 
(4.)  But  if  there  is  intercourse  between  the  inhabitants  of 
heaven,  we  may  reason  farther  that  it  shall  be  very  intimate. 
The  society  of  heaven  is  called  by  the  Apostle  a  family—"  the 
whole  family  in  heaven."     The  inhabitants  are  a  family  convened 
in  the  domestic  mansion  of  their  Father.     This  conveys  the  idea 
of  the  most  endearing  intimacy.     When  do  we  feel  such  unre- 
served ease ;  when  do  we  unbosom  ourselves  vrith  such  unsus- 
pecting confidence,  thinking  aloud  with  one  another ;  when  do 
we  experience  such  an  identity  of  unconflicting  and  stirring  in- 
terests, drawing  forth  and  mingling  all  kindred  streams  of  thought 
and  feeling,  as  in  our  homes  ?     On  earth  we  can  hardly  reach 
intimate  intercourse  with  many.     We  have  no  time  to  cultivate 
it,  in  a  state  in  which  "  our  days  are  but  as  an  hand-breadth." 
When  death  so  soon  divides  us,  we  can  enjoy  direct  intercourse 
only  with  a  few,  separated  as  we  are  by  natural  and  artificial  bar- 
riers, by  language,  by  distance  ;  and  indirect  intercourse  is  never 
very  intimate.     Among  those  near  us,  many  will  not  let  us  know 
them,  keeping  always  on  the  reserve,  and,  as  it  were,  behind  the 
curtain  ;  many  are  not  worth  knowing ;  and  after  we  think  we 
know  others  well,  we  find  by  events  which  bring  out  character 
that  we  have  been  grievously  mistaken.     Society  on  earth  is 
formed  into  an  infinite  variety  of  little  coteries,  or  cliques,  arising 
from  station,  wealth,  literature,  or  religious  party  ;  each  of  these 
has  its  peculiarities,  its  usages,  its  language,  its  prejudices,  its 
intellectual  and  moral  customs ;  notwithstanding  the  expansive 
and  combining  influence  of  true  religion,  these  distinctions  re- 
main ;  and  in  passing  from  one  party  to  the  other,  the  individual 
feels  as  a  stranger,  receiving  and  rendering  many  agreeable  civil- 
ities indeed,  in  the  large  halls  of  promiscuous  entertainment,  but 
excluded  from  the  private  and  smaller  circle  of  interior  and  inti- 
mate converse,  and  departing,  in  a  great  measure,  unknowing 
and  unknown. 


HEAVEN.  289 

Suppose  that  at  a  period  remote  as  the  creation,  the  human 
race  had  reached  the  number  in  which  it  exists  at  this  moment 
on  the  globe,  and  had  remained  unchanged  until  the  present 
period,  and  suppose  that  no  obstructions  to  unrestrained  inter- 
course, individual  and  national,  such  as  have  arisen  from  sin,  had 
existed  ;  suppose  that  such  tendencies,  inducements,  and  facilities 
for  communication  as  a  sinless  world,  accomplished  in  every  im- 
provement, would  exhibit,  had  been  continued  for  6,000  years, 
who  can  calculate  the  degree  of  acquaintanceship  which  would 
have  existed  among  men  at  this  day  ?  Who  can  conceive  the 
intimacy  of  that  intercourse  which  nmst  already  have  embraced 
a  large  proportion  of  the  whole  family  of  man  ?  ^ow  transfer 
these  thoughts  to  the  society  of  that  world  where  all  the  obstruc- 
tions to  intercourse  which  exist  on  earth  shall  vanish — when 
common  interests  and  pursuits  shall  animate,  and  the  bond  of 
love  shall  bind  the  whole — when  means  of  intercourse  shall  be 
multiplied,  and  when  the  fellowship  of  the  blessed  shall  be 
eternal. 

(5.)  And  this  leads  me  to  speak  of  another  element  in  the  state 
of  the  blessed  dead  in  heaven. 

How  evanescent  is  society  on  earth  !  Pleasant  are  the  endear- 
ments of  home — pleasant  the  interviews  of  hallowed  friendship. 
They  come  like  sunbeams  on  the  soul.  But  how  soon  are  they 
darkened  by  the  shadow  of  death  !  The  sweetness  of  intercourse 
in  this  land  of  affliction  and  mortality  is  only  the  antecedent  to 
the  bitterness  of  separation.  In  heaven  we  meet,  but  not  to  part. 
There  are  no  mournful,  tremulous  adieus — no  empty  places  of 
friends  who  once  were  with  us,  no  vacant  chairs  at  the  festal 
board,  no  lamentation  for  those  who  are  not,  no  solitary  survivor 
longiug  in  sadness  for  his  own  dismissal.  Heaven  is  the  land  of 
immortality — no  more  death,  no  more  sorrow  nor  crying.  The 
society  of  the  blessed  shall  be,  like  their  existence,  eternal. 

TV.  "What  shall  be,  what  are  the  employments  of  the  inhabit- 
ants of  this  blessed  abode  ? 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  this  inquiry  by  the  Scriptures,  but  it 
must  be  confessed  it  is  very  scanty.     All  our  meditations  on  and 


290  HEAVEN. 

descriptions  of  heaven  want  balance,  and  are,  so  to  speak,  pic- 
tures ill-composed.  It  was  not  ill-said  bj  a  great  preacher,  that 
most  people's  idea  of  heaven  is  that  it  is  to  sit  on  a  cloud  and 
sing  psalms.  Others  again  strive  to  fill  this  out  with  the  bliss  of 
recognizing  and  holding  intercourse  with  those  from  whom  we 
have  been  severed  on  earth.  And  beyond  all  doubt  such  recog- 
nition and  intercourse  shall  be  and  shall  constitute  one  of  the 
most  blessed  accessories  of  the  heavenly  employment ;  but  it  can 
no  moi*e  be  the  employment  itself  than  similar  intercourse  on 
earth  was  the  employment  of  life  itself  here.  "  To  read  some 
descriptions  of  heaven  one  would  imagine  that  it  were  only  an 
endless  prolongation  of  some  social  meeting,  walking  and  talking 
in  some  blessed  country  with  those  we  love."  Is  it  not  clear 
that  this  does  not  provide  the  renewed  energies  and  enlai'ged 
powers  of  man  with  food  for  eternity?  Nor  if  we  look  in 
another  direction — that  of  the  absence  of  sickness  and  sorrow — 
shall  we  find  any  more  satisfactory  answer  to  the  question.  Nay, 
we  shall  find  it  more  difiicult,  and  beset  with  greater  complica- 
tions on  this  very  account.  For,  think  how  much  of  employ- 
ment for  our  present  energies  is  occasioned  by,  and  finds  its  very 
field  of  action  in,  these  anxieties  and  vicissitudes.  They  are,  so 
to  speak,  the  winds  which  fill  the  sails  and  carry  us  onward. 
By  their  action  hope  and  enthusiasm  are  excited.  But  suppose 
a  state  where  they  are  not,  and  life  would  become  a  dead 
calm;  the  sail  would  flap  idly  and  the  spirit  would  cease  to 
look  onward  at  all.  So  that  unless  we  can  supply  something 
over  and  above  the  mere  absence  of  anxiety  and  pain,  we  have 
not  attained  to,  nay,  we  are  farther  than  ever  from  a  sufii- 
cient  employment  for  the  life  eternal.  Now,  before  we  seek 
for  an  answer  to  the  question,  let  us  think  a  moment  thus: 
Can  we  know,  are  we  able  in  our  present  state  of  the  infancy 
of  our  spirits  to  know  or  understand  much  about  the  employ- 
ments of  heaven?  What  does  the  child  at  play  know,  what 
can  he  know  of  the  employments  of  the  man  ?  Such  portions 
of  them  as  are  merely  external  and  material,  he  may  take  in  and 
represent  in  his  sport ;  but  the  work  and  anxiety  of  the  student 
at  his  book,  or  the  man  of  business  at  his  desk — these  are  of 


HEAVEN.  291 

necessity  hidden  from  the  child,  and  so  it  is  onward  through  the 
advancing  stages  of  his  life,  of  each  of  them  it  may  be  said,  "  We 
know  not  with  what  we  must  serve  the  Lord  until  we  come 
thither ''  (Ex.  x.  26).  So  that  we  need  not  be  utterly  disappoint- 
ed if  our  picture  of  heaven  be  at  present  ill-composed  ;  if  it  seem 
to  be  little  else  than  a  gorgeous  mist  after  all.  We  cannot  fill  in 
the  members  of  the  landscape  at  present.  If  we  could,  we  should 
he  in  heaven.  For  we  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  Now  we 
see  tlrrough  a  glass,  ^.  e.,  in  a  mirror,  darkly ;  but  then,  face  to 
face ;  now  I  know  in  part,  but  then  shall  I  know  even  as  I  am 
known. 

Although  little  is  actually  conveyed  by  the  words,  do  they  not 
give  a  glimpse  by  suggestion  of  the  possible  employments  of  the 
blessed  ?  This  immense  accession  of  light  and  knowledge  must 
of  course  be  interpreted  partly  of  keener  and  brighter  faculties 
wherewith  the  blessed  shall  be  endowed ;  but  do  not  words  also 
point  to  glorious  employment  of  those  renewed  and  augmented 
powers  ?  How  could  one  endowed  with  them  ever  remain  idle  ? 
What  a  restless,  ardent,  many-handed  thing  is  genius  here  be- 
low. How  the  highly-endowed  spirit  searches  about  and  tries  its 
wings,  now  hither,  now  thither,  in  the  vast  realms  of  intellectual 
life.  And  if  it  be  so  here  with  the  body  weighing  on  us,  with 
the  clogs  of  worldly  business  and  trivial  interruptions,  what  will 
it  be  there,  when  everything  will  be  fashioned  and  arranged  for 
this  express  purpose  that  every  higher  employment  may  find  its 
noblest  expansion  without  let  or  hindrance.  What  po\^r  mind 
shall  acquire  there,  to  what  a  distance  the  intellectual  eye  shall 
reach,  over  what  a  field  and  over  what  a  crowd  of  glorious  ob- 
jects it  shall  range,  and  with  what  distinctness  its  perceptions 
shall  be  accompanied  in  that  bright  region,  it  is  not  for  ns  at 
present  to  conceive.  With  what  accuracy  the  judgment  shall 
act ;  with  what  power  and  rapidity  reason  shall  conduct  its  most 
involved  and  sublime  processes,  and  at  what  magnificent  results 
it  shall  arrive ;  with  what  stores  memory  faithful  and  strong 
shall  be  enriched,  as  it  shall  amass  intelligence  from  all  parts  of 
the  universe  and  the  transactions  and  discoveries  of  past  dura- 
tion ;  amidst  what  boundless  amplitude  of  varied  and  glorious 


292  HEAVEN. 

being,  of  whole  regions  of  truth  yet  undiscovered  imagination 
shall  travel,  and  what  its  creations  shall  then  be,  and  with  what 
promptitude  and  fullness  mind  shall  communicate  itself  to  mind ! 
How  consoling  and  at  the  same  time  how  exciting  and  exhila- 
rating is  this  view  of  heaven,  considered  as  the  scene  of  perfect 
intellectual  strength,  activity,  acquirement,  and  communication. 
Eemember  that  in  heaven  we  are  to  be  "  forever  with  the  Lord  "; 
and  if  we  are  fit  companions  for  the  Lord,  we  must  be  like  Him 
as  He  is  there,  and  this  alone  seems  to  mark  out  employment 
sufficient  for  eternity.  For  what  is,  what  will  the  Lord  be  doing 
in  that  state  of  blessedness  ?  Will  He  be  idle  like  the  gods  of 
Epicurus,  sitting  severe  above  all  and  separate  from  all  created 
things  ?  No,  indeed ;  no  such  glorified  Lord  is  revealed  to  us  in 
Holy  Scripture.  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work." 
The  created  universe  will  be  as  much  beholden  to  His  upholding 
hand  as  it  is  now.  If  we  are  to  be  forever  with  Him,  attending 
and  guiding  His  steps,  we  shall  doubtless  be  fellow-workers  with 
Him  as  we  are  here.  Look  abroad  on  a  starry  night — and  be 
hold  a  field  of  employment  for  those  who  shall  be  ever  with  the 
Lord.  And  who  can  tell  what  works,  not  of  creation  only,  but 
of  grace  also,  the  blessed  may  have  to  search  into,  works  wrought 
on  themselves  and  others,  which  may  there  be  brought  back  to 
them  by  memory  entirely  restored,  and  then  first  studied  with 
any  power  to  comprehend  and  be  tliankful  for  them  ? 

Then  again,  the  glory  of  God  himself,  there  first  revealed  to 
them — the  redeeming  love  of  Christ — the  glory  of  the  mystery 
of  the  indwelling  of  the  Spirit, — dry  and  lofty  subjects  to  the 
sons  of  men  here, — will  be  to  us,  when  there,  as  household  words 
and  as  daily  pursuits.  It  seems  to  me,  when  we  look  at  all  these 
sources  of  blessed  employment,  though  we  are  unable  from  our 
present  weakness  to  follow  them  out  into  detail — and  when  we 
think  that  perhaps  after  all  we  may  be  omitting  some  which 
shall  then  constitute  the  chief, — it  seems  to  me,  I  say,  as  if  we 
should  not  have  to  complain  of  insufficient  employment  for  the 
ages  of  eternity,  but  rather  of  an  infinite  and  inexhaustible  vari- 
ety for  which  even  endless  ages  of  limited  being  hardly  seem  to 
suffice. 


HEAVEN.  293 

Y.  And  now  consider  that  this  ^^lace  of  many  mansions  and  of 
snch  infinite  employments  is  not  far  from  us  in  reality.  The 
nearness  of  heaven  is  suggested  by  the  word  veil.  Our  fore- 
runner, Jesus,  is  said  by  the  Apostle  to  have  retired  behind  the 
veil.  There  is  then  only  a  veil  between  us  and  heaven.  "A 
veil  is  the  thinnest  and  frailest  of  all  conceivable  partitions.  It 
is  but  a  fine  tissue,  a  delicate  fabric  of  embroidery.  It  waves  in 
the  evening  zephyr ;  the  touch  of  a  child  may  stir  it,  and  the 
slightest  accident  may  rend  it ;  the  silent  action  of  time  will 
moulder  it  away.  The  veil  that  hides  heaven  from  our  eyes  is 
only  our  embodied  existence,  and  though  fearfully  and  wonder- 
fuEy  made,  it  is  only  wrought  out  of  our  frail  mortality.  So 
slight  is  it  that  the  puncture  of  a  thorn,  the  touch  of  an  insect's 
sting,  the  breath  of  an  infected  atmosphere  may  make  it  shake 
and  fall.  In  a  bound,  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
in  the  throb  of  a  pulse,  in  the  flash  of  a  thought,  we  may  start 
into  disembodied  spirits,  glide  unabashed  into  the  company  of 
great  and  mighty  angels,  pass  into  the  light  and  amazement  of 
eternity,  know  the  great  secret,  gaze  upon  splendors  which  flesli 
and  blood  could  not  sustain,  and  which  no  words  lawful  for  men 
to  utter  could  describe.  Brethren,  there  is  but  one  step  between 
you  and  what  lies  behind  that  curtain  ;  between  you  and  heaven 
there  is  but  a  veil."  "  This  day  shalt  thou  be  wdth  me  in  paradise," 
said  the  dying  Saviour  to  the  penitent  thief.  It  is  not  far  to 
heaven  ;  it  is  not  a  day's  journey.  The  angel  came  all  the  way 
from  heaven  in  a  few  minutes  to  Daniel  while  he  was  speaking 
in  prayer.  The  Saviour  ascended  from  Olivet  to  heaven,  and 
was  soon  out  of  sight.  The  dying  saint  closes  his  eyes  in  death, 
sleeps  in  Jesus,  and  opens  them  in  heaven.  Sometimes  the  de- 
parting Christian  hears  the  songs  and  music  of  heaven  even  before 
his  immortal  spirit  stretches  its  wings  for  its  final  flight.  How 
far,  then,  is  it  to  heaven  ?  You  may  be  already  within  the  sound 
of  its  happy  voices,  and  but  for  the  "  veil  of  humanity  "  they 
might  even  now  fall  upon  the  ear. 

YI.  Lastly.  There  is  one  more  thought  which  I  desire  to  pre- 
sent, although  I  have  already  detained  you  too  long.     But  it  is 


294  HEAVEN. 

one  immediately  connected  with  this  theme,  though  not  necessa- 
rily growing  out  of  it.  It  is  suggested  by  what  a  lovely  Christian 
woman  once  said  to  me,  just  before  she  fell  asleep :  "  I  do  not 
fear  death  because  I  have  any  doubt  or  misgivings  as  to  my  safety 
in  Christ,  but  I  shrink  from  the  thought  of  standing  so  suddenly 
in  the  awful  presence  of  the  great  and  glorious  and  holy  One," 
Her  idea  was  that  the  entrance  of  the  soul  into  heaven  would  be 
accompanied  by  a  shock  of  surprise,  and  that  the  intiuite  sublimi- 
ties of  the  new  and  glorious  state  would  overwhelm  and  well-nigh 
annihilate  the  soul.  Great  excitement  has  sometimes  driven  rea- 
son from  her  throne  ;  and  verily,  the  joy  and  splendor  of  that 
moment  might  seem  more  than  enough  to  confound  the  bravest 
and  hohest  spirit.  But  no,  beloved,  it  shall  not  be  so.  Be  com- 
forted ;  be  assured  it  shall  not  be  so.  There  will  be  no  stunning 
shock  to  your  spirit ;  there  will  be  no  sense  of  embarrassment ; 
no  shame,  no  fear,  no  painful  awe,  no  confusion  of  face,  no  sink- 
ing of  the  spirit,  no  shrinking  of  the  soul — nothing  to  disturb  the 
calm  serenity  with  which  the  soul  shall  enter  the  blessed  abode. 
"  A  troop  of  angelic  beings,  unseen,  crowd  around  the  bed  of  the 
dying  Christian  in  the  chamber  of  death,  and  are  ready,  with 
outstretched  wings,  to  bear  the  spirit  home  to  God  ;  the  last 
quiver  gasped  from  the  bloodless  lip,  the  last  sigh  breathed  out, 
and  swifter  than  the  heams  of  the  morning^  or  the  flash  of  the 
lightning,  they  tower  with  it  to  glory." 

"  Oh  change!  oh  wondrous  change! 

Burst  are  the  prison  bars ; 
This  moment,  there — so  low, 
So  agonized — and  now 

Beyond  the  stars ! 

* '  Oh  change,  stupendous  change  1 

There  lies  the  soulless  clod ; 
The  sun  eternal  breaks. 
The  new  immortal  wakes — 

Wakes  with  his  God." 

But  He  who  has  protected  it  from  all  evil,  also  shields  it  when 
disembodied  amidst  that  opulence  of  celestial  glory,  so  that  it 
feels  serenely  calm  and  perfectly  at  case  the  moment  it  crosses 


HEAVEN.  ,      295 

the  threshold  of  its  heavenly  home,  and  is  encompassed  by  the 
stupendous  reahties  of  an  eternal  condition.  "Wherefore,  my 
beloved,  "  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid ; 
in  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  if  it  were  not  so,  I 
would  have  told  you.  I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  tou.  And 
if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  fok  you,  I  will  come  again  and  re- 
ceive you  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye  may  be  also."  * 


*  "  By  a  happy  coincidence  Mr.  Pratt's  ministry  closed  where  it  may  be 
said  to  have  begun.  On  the  15th  of  January,  1888,  a  few  months  before  his 
death,  he  stood  among  his  old  friends  in  Tuskaloosa,  and  amid  the  tender 
memories  of  the  home  of  earlier  years  (the  last  Sabbath  morning  he  ever 
preached),  spoke  to  them  of  '  Heaven,'  the  other  and  eternal  home  he  was  so 
soon  to  enter." 


PRAYERS. 


A  CO^IPEEHENSrVE  PEATEE  FOE  MOENING  SEEYICE. 

Almightt  God,  we  are  glad  to  be  found  again  in  Thy  sanctuary, 
for  our  feet  are  weai'y  and  our  hearts  long  for  rest.  We  have  been 
all  the  week  in  the  cold  world,  and  have  sighed  over  its  sinfulness 
and  disquietude.  And  yet  u:e  see  only  the  outside  deformity  and 
blemish  ;  but  Thine  eye  searches  the  recesses  of  the  corrupt  heart. 
There  is  nothing  hid  from  Thee.  Our  service  in  the  world  haa 
quickened  our  desire  to  enter  into  the  praises  of  Thy  sanctuary,  for 
we  have  felt  as  men  who  sigh  in  a  far-ofiE  land  for  the  sweetness 
and  comfort  of  home.  Now  we  are  in  Thy  house,  and  a  sense  of 
safety  makes  us  glad  ;  we  feel  that  we  are  in  a  City  of  Eefuge,  into 
which  no  man-slayer  may  enter.  This  is  our  Father's  house,  and 
the  enemy  has  no  place  in  it.  Thou  dost  shut  the  gate  upon  aH 
our  foes.  Come,  then,  and  meet  us ;  speak  comfortably  to  our 
hearts,  and  by  the  infinite  tenderness  of  Thy  love,  rather  than  by 
the  alarming  thunder  of  Thy  law,  do  Thou  bow  down  our  hearts  in 
the  joyful  sorrow  of  penitence.  What  shall  we  say  of  our  sin? 
We  cannot  speak  of  it  without  shame  and  confusion  of  face,  especi- 
ally when  we  think  of  all  the  mercy  Thou  hast  shown  to  us.  God 
be  merciful  unto  us  sinners ! 

We  lay  our  hand  upon  the  cross,  and  find  all  our  hope  in  the 
blood  of  Thy  Son,  which  cleanseth  from  all  sin.  Think  of  us  in 
Jesus  Christ's  name,  and  our  sins  shall  not  shut  Thee  out.  Thou 
eeekest  to  dwell  in  us  as  in  a  holy  temple  ;  come  and  be  the  only 
guest  in  the  whole  sanctuary  of  our  love.  WhOe  we  are  yet  speak- 
ing of  our  sin  do  Thou  forgive  it ;  and  though  we  would  not  have 
our  sense  of  its  enormity  diminished,  we  would  see  Thy  love  over- 
shadowing and  exceeding  our  great  sinfulness.  Even  now  while 
we  are  in  this,  Thy  house,  let  us  hear  Thee  saying  that  all  our  sin 
is  cast  behind  Thee.  We  know  not  how  to  tell  Thee  of  our  many 
•wants  ;  our  joy  is  that  Thou  needst  not  to  be  told.  As  Thy  great 
waters  flood  all  the  beds  of  the  sea,  and  Thy  rains  faD  even  upon 
the  desert  and  the  rock,  and  the  hght  of  Thy  sun  shines  upon  all 
(296) 


PRAYERS.  297 

the  eai-tli,  even  more  doth  Thy  love  pour  itself  down  upon  the 
poverty  of  our  needy  and  anxious  hearts.  We  would  be  wise  in 
Thy  wisdom  ;  we  would  love  according  to  the  measui'e  of  Thy  love. 
We  would  be  high  above  the  world,  as  Thou  aii.  We  would  par- 
take of  Thy  riches.  Thou  hast  given  us  all  that  has  ever  been  for 
our  good — every  clear  idea  of  truth,  every  tender  emotion,  every 
aspiration  which  has  raised  us  above  grovelling  pursuits — nor  have 
we  exhausted  Thee  :  Thou  art  the  everlasting  Father,  full  of  riches 
which  Thou  offerest  to  the  childi'en  of  men  ;  therefore  we  come 
again  to  the  ovei-flowing  river  of  Thy  loving-kindness.  We  aspire 
very  high  this  morning,  encouraged  to  do  so  by  Thy  providential 
mercies.  Thou  hast  given  us  the  joy  of  early  harvest ;  Thou  hast 
made  a  way  for  the  lightning,  and  through  the  paths  of  the  thunder 
Thou  hast  poured  the  cool  and  refreshing  rain  upon  the  parched 
fields. 

Thou  hast  also  showers  of  blessings  for  Thy  church  ;  yea,  even  a 
blessing  which  the  church  has  not  room  enough  to  contain.  Excite 
in  our  hearts  intense  longings  for  this  blessing,  that  we  may  give 
Thee  no  rest  until  Thou  hast  opened  the  windows  of  heaven.  Give 
us  a  firmer  hold  of  Thy  truth  and  a  truer  experience  of  Christ's  un- 
speakable peace.  And  may  we  prove  that  Thou  hast  heard  us  by 
living  a  godly  and  more  heavenly  life  among  men. 

We  believe  that  the  effectual,  fervent  prayer  of  the  righteous 
man  availeth  much,  and  we  would  not  forget  to  make  intercession 
this  day  for  aU  those  for  whom  Thou  hast  commanded  us  to  praj' — 
for  our  rulers  of  every  grade,  from  the  President  to  the  humblest 
officers  of  the  law.  Counsel  our  counsellors,  and  teach  om-  Sena- 
tors wisdom.  May  they  rule  us  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord,  and  through 
their  wise  governance  may  we  become  that  happy  people  whose 
God  is  the  Lord.  Pour  out  Thy  Holy  Spirit  on  all  schools  and 
colleges  and  seminaries  of  learning,  so  that  from  these  fountains 
may  issue  streams  which  shall  make  glad  the  city  of  our  God.  Illum- 
inate the  printed  page,  and  bless  all  Bibles  and  tracts  and  religi- 
ous newspapers.  Impart  heavenly  wisdom  to  those  who  conduct 
them.  Bless  all  the  inmates  of  hospitals,  the  deaf,  the  dumb,  the 
blind.  Eestore  to  soundness  of  mind  aU  who  are  bereft  of  reason. 
Heal  all  who  are  tossing  on  beds  of  languishing.  Smooth  with 
Thine  own  soft  hand  the  couch  of  the  incurable  sufferer,  and  give 
her  grace  to  show  by  her  patience  that  the  Gospel  is  the  power  of 


298  PRAYERS. 

God  not  only  to  save  the  soul,  but  to  sanctify  the  heart.  Comfort 
all  Thine  afflicted,  sorroTving,  bereaved  children.  Be  the  God  of 
the  widow,  the  father  of  the  fatherless.  Extend  the  shield  of  Thy 
protection  over  all  who  travel  by  land  or  by  sea.  Bless  all  sailors 
who  do  business  on  the  mighty  waters  ;  all  soldiers  who  are  far  re- 
moved from  the  means  of  Grace  ;  all  commercial  travellers,  and  all 
raih*oad  employes  who,  through  the  avarice  of  great  corporations, 
are  constantly  breaking  Thy  laws, — may  they  remember  the  Sabbath 
day  to  keep  it  holy.  Bless  all  j)ohcemen,  those  trusty  guardians  of 
our  homes,  who  watch  for  us  while  we  sleep  ;  and  all  firemen,  those 
brave  men  who  rescue  our  property  from  the  flames,  and  who  are 
often  exposed  to  j)eril  on  our  behalf.  And,  O  God,  bless  all  prison- 
ers and  such  as  are  appointed  to  die  ;  and  the  poor,  the  outcast, 
and  the  homeless.  We  beseech  Thy  tender  compassion  for  all 
prodigal  sons  over  whose  waywardness  pious  parents  are  mourning 
in  heaviness  of  heart.  Kecall  them  from  their  wanderings.  We 
make  intercession  for  this  world  which  lieth  in  wickedness.  Hasten 
the  day  when  all  flesh  shall  know  Thee,  when  Jesus  shall  see  of  the 
travail  of  His  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied  ;  hasten  the  reign  of  uni- 
versal peace  throughout  the  world,  the  prosperity  of  the  Church  uni- 
versal, when  Zion  shall  shake  herself  from  the  dust  and  arise  and 
shine,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  being  risen  upon  her.  Bless  the  Jews, 
Thine  ancient  people.  Give  success  to  all  missionaries  at  home  and 
abroad;  maj'' their  lives  be  precious  in  Thy  sight.  Bless  Thy  Word; 
may  it  not  return  unto  Thee  void.  And  bless,  we  beseech  Thee,  all 
who  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  our  brethren  among  the 
heathen,  who  are  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  renouncing  their 
faith.  Pour  out  Thy  Holy  Spirit  upon  all  our  Sunday-schools,  and 
from  these  nurseries  of  the  church  may  there  be  transplanted  stately 
trees  to  adorn  the  garden  of  our  Lord.  And  now  we  pray  for  a 
blessing  upon  us — as  we  wait  before  Thee — upon  this  church,  its 
elders,  deacons,  and  all  its  members,  and  upon  the  strangers  who 
may  be  with  us  ;  may  they  feel  at  home  in  this  their  Father's 
house.  Finally,  we  pray  for  all  the  unconveiied  members  of  the 
church,  and  for  all  sinners,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  would  this  day 
rend  the  heavens  and  come  down  and  save  their  souls  ;  and  all  the 
praise  shall  be  to  God  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  in  a  world 
without  end.     Amen. 


PRAYERS.  299 

MORNING  PRAYER 

O  God,  Thou  art  our  God  and  our  Father.  Doubtless  Thou  art 
our  Father,  though  Abraham  be  ignorant  of  us  and  Israel  acknowl- 
edge us  not.  Thou,  O  Lord,  art  our  Father,  and  we  will  exalt  Thee. 
Thou  art  very  great,  clothed  with  honor  and  majesty.  Thou  coverest 
Thj^self  with  Hght  as  with  a  garment,  and  in  Thee  is  no  darkness 
at  all.  Thou  art  God  alone,  and  beside  Thee  there  is  none  else. 
The  heavens  declare  Thy  glory.  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to  re- 
ceive blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and  power,  for  Thou  hast  cre- 
ated aU  things,  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were  created. 
The  earth  is  full  of  Thy  riches  ;  Thy  kingdom  i-uleth  over  all.  A 
sparrow  falls  not  to  the  ground  without  our  Father,  and  the  hau's 
of  our  head  are  all  numbered.  Thou  hast  made  us  and  not  we  our- 
selves. We  are  not  our  own,  but  Thine,  Thy  people  and  the  sheep 
of  Thy  pasture.  In  Thee  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being. 
Thou  hast  redeemed  us  from  evil,  we  are  bought  with  a  price.  It 
is  of  Thy  mercy  we  are  not  consumed,  because  Thy  compassions  fail 
not.  Thou  hast  appointed  a  High  Priest  in  whose  name  we  come 
boldly  to  Thy  throne  of  grace.  Y/e  make  mention  of  the  righte- 
ousness of  Christ  and  of  His  only. 

CONTESSION. 

Most  merciful  God,  we  come  to  Thee  in  humble  dejDendence 
upon  His  atonement  and  intercession,  and  confess  our  sins  which 
are  many  and  great.  Against  Thee,  Thee  only  have  we  sinned;  to 
us  belongeth  shame  and  confusion  of  face.  Behold  we  are  vile  ; 
what  shall  we  answer  Thee  ?  We  have  ruined  ourselves,  but  in 
Thee  is  our  help.  If  Thou,  Lord,  shouldst  mark  iniquity,  who 
could  stand  ?  But  there  is  forgiveness  with  Thee,  that  Thou  mayest 
be  feared.  With  Thee  is  mercy  ;  yea,  with  our  God  there  is  plente- 
ous redemption.  We  thank  Thee  that  Thou  hast  so  loved  the  world 
as  to  give  Thine  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  beheveth  in 
Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  Hf  e. 

SUPPLICATION. 

In  the  all-prevailing  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  name  with 
which  Thou  art  ever  weU-j)leased,  \we  present  our  prayers  and  sujd- 
plications  to  Thee.     And  now.  Lord,  what  wait  we  for  ?     Our  eyes 


300  PRAYERS. 

are  unto  Thee  and  our  hope  is  in  Thee,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Redeemer.  Deliver  us  from  our  transgressions ;  and,  O  God,  be 
merciful  to  us  sinners.  Wash  us  thoroughly  from  our  iniquity  and 
cleanse  us  from  our  sins,  for  we  acknowledge  our  transgressions, 
and  our  sins  are  ever  before  vis.  Justify  us  freely  by  Thy  grace 
through  the  redemption  that  is  in  Jesus  Chiist  our  Lord.  "Work  in 
us  the  work  of  faith  with  power.  Give  us  a  goodly  sorrow  and  true 
repentance.  Shed  abroad  Thy  love  in  our  hearts.  May  our  con- 
science be  always  tender  ;  may  we  abstain  from  the  appearance  of 
evil.  Enable  us  to  be  circumspect  in  all  our  conversation,  watch- 
ing over  our  thoughts,  our  lips,  and  our  lives.  May  we  be  diligent 
in  every  duty,  performing  it  with  a  ready  mind  and  with  joy  and 
gladness  of  heart.  Grant  that  we  may  increase  in  godliness,  that 
we  may  grow  in  grace,  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.  O  Lord,  Thou  who  art  the  confidence  of  all 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  preserve  us  from  temptation,  support  ua 
under  afflictions,  comfort  us  in  sorrow,  make  us  useful  in  Hfe,  pre- 
pare us  for  death,  and  when  we  have  done  serving  Thee  here  be- 
low, admit  us,  we  beseech  Thee,  to  that  state  of  rest  and  perfection 
which  Thou  hast  prepared  for  Thy  people  in  the  heavenly  world. 


THANKSGIVING. 

We  thank  Thee  for  Thy  Son,  for  Thy  Spirit,  for  Thy  Word,  Thy 
ministry,  the  Sabbath,  and  sanctuary  blessings;  for  life  and  breath, 
and  all  things ;  for  sweet  communion  with  Thee,  for  gracious 
answers  to  our  prayers,  for  succor  in  temptation,  support  under 
trouble,  and  for  the  joyful  hopes  of  a  glorious  immortality.  Hear 
our  supplications  and  accept  oiu'  thanksgiving  for  Chi'ist's  sake. 


INTERCESSION. 

For  President,  Congressmen,  Governor,  and  Magistrates;  Police- 
men, Firemen,  Travellers  by  land  and  sea.  Sailors,  Soldiers,  Rail- 
road employes.  Steamboat  men,  Commercial  travellers.  Blind,  Deaf, 
Dmnb,  Insane,  Prisoners  and  those  appointed  to  die,  Poor,  Out- 
cast, Homeless,  Widows,  Orphans,  Fatherless,  Sick  and  Afflicted, 
Sunday-schools,  Colleges,  Prodigal  Sons,  Missionai'ies  at  home  and 


PRAYERS.  301 

abroad.  Cliurch  Universal,  This  Church,  Elders,  Deacons,  Private 
members,  Strangers  with  us,  etc. 


Note. — We  have  heard  of  a  minister  who  said  "if  he  had  only  five  minutes 
to  pray  he  would  like  to  spend  four  of  them  in  preparation. "  As  this  seems  to 
accord  with  Mr.  Pratt's  habit,  on  that  account  we  are  able  to  comply  with  the 
request  of  those  ministers  who  asked  that  some  of  his  prayers  be  included  in 
this  volume. 


unto  m%  "mivxtc,  gtcssM  uvc  ttxe  jcXi>tid  xoUicU 
au  in  tUc  %ova  from  Ucnccfavm:  ^ca,  saittx 
ttxe  M'pivit,  ttxat  ttxetj  tixaij  rest  fvom  tTxeir 
Xalj0rs;  awj^  tlxeix:  woxUs  do  toXIoxtr  ttxcm/' 

Revelation  xiv.  13. 


(303) 


\p  4    *3B 

1 

— zzxzul 

1 

— 





1 

f 

1 

V    ^    4     <    ^    ''  V 


ft%^^ 


^^\ 


— *  ii 


'X 


^t\S     " 


-        \r 

'  a 

""      *  .  ,* 

^1 

u    ^Ut 

\-«  ^m 

'4  •: 

"^J^ 

<^j' 

^,*^j| 

;;t  ^,' 

